


The Fall of the Vault Hunters

by lastoftheorder



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Deaths, Torture, Trauma, VaultHunter!Angel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-08-04 23:46:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16356611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastoftheorder/pseuds/lastoftheorder
Summary: After entering Opportunity in Pandora and killing Jack's body double on the instruction of Angel, the group of vault hunters fall into a trap laid by Handsome Jack and are captured. Jack takes his time on his revenge, telling each vault hunter what he's going to do with them.After that, the vault hunters only have one hope of escape.





	1. Chapter 1

Jack was giddy. He sat in his office, his diamond unicorn munching on spare radiator parts in her kennel, a new statue of him on a new fountain. Hyperion’s stocks were up 212%, and he had just caught the annoying vault hunters who had been a thorn in his side for months. Now all six of them were chained up with an army of hyperion bots and soldiers holding guns to their heads waiting outside of his door for their punishment. He couldn’t help but smile seeing them all out there from his security camera. He might frame this picture and put it next to one of his many portraits hanging from his office. He adjusted the collar of his jacket and put his feet up on his desk.

“Send in the Siren.” he announced. He saw her pushed by several hyperion guards, forced to leave her group of pathetic friends and head towards his doors. She looked away from it to see the large doors open to her arrival. Jack opened up his arms. 

“Welcome, Maya! I hope you’re enjoying your stay on Hyperion station, although I don’t think you’re going to be here very long. You know, I’m loving the new look for you, especially the collar. I mean, it means that you’re under my control and have to do what I say, but I say hey, what does it matter for the sake of fashion?” 

Maya glared at him and looked like she was going to snap a retort back at him, but unfortunately her mouth was gagged.She would probably slap him too if it weren’t for the chains on her arms. Jack couldn’t but help but laugh at her in all her helplessness. 

“ Do you know what I’m going to do with you? Alright, so get this. I have a daughter. SHe’s a siren like you, same taste in fashion.” Jack mimicked pulling on a collar and winked at Maya, “Anyways. I’ve wired her up to the electronics on most of Pandora, and I keep pumping her full of eridium. She’s like a drug addict! If I take her off, I’d kill her, but I need her to save Pandora, so she’s just daddy’s little trooper. She’s powering up that vault key you were trying to steal from me, but child labor isn’t exactly fast. I think you would make a great playmate for my daughter, wouldn’t you?. Take her to the transport pod, taker her to bunker beta, she doesn’t need to be in the same room as my darling angel.” Jack waved his flunkies off and they dragged Maya away.

He inspected the row of vault hunters. Who should invite in next? There was his pet project psycho, and there was that handsome bloke Axton. Finally one of them caught his eye. 

“Alright, ladies first. Send in the one armed girl,” he said, “And remove her gag. I need her to answer some questions for me.” 

He watched from the video screen as his men hesitantly unhooked her from the group chain and then removed her gag. Jack presumed that she was yelling profanities as soon as they took it off. 

“Don’t let her in until she’s calmed down, however, I don’t feel like losing my hearing.” He waited as she screamed at each of the hyperian guards. They started shouting back at her. Jack rolled his eyes. It was boring watching the incompetent work. He opened up one of the drawers of his desk and pulled up a glass screened file. He flipped through it and savored the opportunity he had with this little girl. 

He glanced back at the video. The guards had forgotten to chain up her legs and she managed to score a good shot to one of their nuts. It served them right for forgetting that detail; vault hunters were dangerous. Apparently, the girl was satisfied with landing that blow and began behaving. They brought her inside. 

“Come on up here, kiddo.” Jack said with a grin, gesturing to the leather seat in front of his desk. The guards were about to push her, but she held her chin high, smiled at the one who she had landed the kick on, and walked by herself up to the seat. 

“Unchain her, boys, this is no way to treat a potential business partner.” Jack said. The hyperion guards looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Jack adjusted the collar of his coat. 

“Now, idiots.” He said. They jumped to action. 

“Isn’t it dangerous to let a prisoner free?” she asked. 

“Ah yes, I am quite terrified of a one arm girl without any weapons. What could you possibly do to me?” 

“Why don’t you ask your guards?” she leaned forward and smiled. The one who had gotten the crotch shot shifted uncomfortably. 

“I like you, kid. You’ve got fire in your spirit and some impossible dedication to your work. I can appreciate that. Cutting off your own arm to get first place in a high school   
science fair? That’s what I call giving an arm and a leg!” 

“And your point, skag licker?” Gaige asked. Jack shrugged off the insult. 

“You’ve got style, you’ve got guts, you’ve got skill. I want you as part of my robotics team. That girl, Missy, Mindy, whatever her name was, has nothing on you. Her policing robots are nothing like your D374-DT unit. You’ve created something truly amazing, that almost rivals Hyperion’s own robot department. I’d like you to work for us.”   
He stayed grinning as she laughed at him. 

“You think I would ever work for you? You’re a midget loving taint sack, and must be drinking skag if you think I would ever work for you. I’d rather have DT slash and burn your sorry ass and scatter your ashes all across Pandora.” Gaige spat. 

Jack still kept his smile as tapped on his computer screen and pulled up an image. He swung it over to her.

“You know, you’re parents are both in a Hyperion prison right now, something about aiding and abetting a child murderer and an illegal robot maker. One word from me and I could let them go. Likewise, one word from me and I could send them to become new experiment studies, or maybe send them to the firing squad. What do you think?”   
Gaige’s eyes widened. The picture was of her parents in a destitute prison, dressed in ragged prison clothes and looking dirty and thin. 

“Let them go.” She said quietly. 

“I’m sorry, pumpkin, do you mind repeating that?” Jack asked. Gaige lunged at him, but was stopped by the hyperion guards who grabbed her arms and pinned her back into the chair. It didn’t matter that they caught her in time, his force field would have shot her back. He would never fully rely on his men. 

“Let them go, let them go!” She screamed, squirming against the hyperion men.

“Now now, sweetheart, are you ready to make a deal with me, a skagg licking, midget loving taint sack?” Jack feigned shock. Gaige looked about ready to answer but Jack held up his hand. 

“Before you make a decision, let me show you a little something.” he said coldly. He pressed a button on the screen, and it became live video. All around her parents cell were psychos clawing through the bars. Her parents were clutching each other desperately, trying to avoid the hands trying to grab at them, pure terror on both of their faces. Jack pointed at the psychos. 

“Do you see these guys? They were all prisoners once, too! This is what your parents will be if they’re lucky. I would think about how you’re going to behave in the next few minutes, and give my offer some serious consideration.”

Gaige froze for a moment, her eyes darting between Jack and the video of her parents. 

“You’ll let them go?” she said quietly. Jack threw back his head and laughed. 

“Hell no! But I won’t keep torturing them. Or at least I’ll do it less. And they won’t die, that I will promise. I need them as bargaining chips to keep you in line.”   
Gaige hung her head. 

“I- I’ll help you.” she said. Jack clapped his hands in delight. 

“Fantastic! You’re officially my bitch. One of you bully boys, go get us a bottle of champagne. This is history in the making. You wanna shake hands on it? Oh, sorry, we ripped your arm off because you had a killer robot hiding in your arm.” Jack laughed. He wiped a tear from his eye. 

“Of course, you will be given a hyperion mandated and approved arm, to help with your work. And you’ll be given your own workshop, which will also be your home and your cell. If you try to escape or stab me in the back, I will blow up your parents.” 

Gaige started crying. Jack sweetened his voice.

“Hey, hey there sweetheart. Maybe I’ll even let you see your parents on your birthday. Not in person, of course, but we can arrange a vid screen chat for at least five minutes. Remember, I’m the good guy here, not the monster you think I am.” 

“Please take the psychos away.” she sobbed. 

“Of course.” he pressed a button, and hyperion soldiers swarmed into the frame and electrocuted the psychos and dragged them away. Her parents relaxed, and Jack turned off the video. Gaige sobbed into her arm. Jack savored his sheer victory for a moment, savoring it in until a hyperian worker appeared at his side with two flutes glasses and a champaign bottle in a bucket of ice. Jack thanked him and filled the two glasses. He slid one over to Gaige. 

“To a new partnership.” he said, picking up his own glass and holding it up. Gaige continued sobbing. 

“Gaige, pick up the glass.” he said icily. She was still sobbing as she slowly obeyed. She held it up shakily to meet his. The glasses clinked. 

“Now drink.” he commanded. She did as he said. He drained his glass, watching her carefully. He put his glass down. 

“You know what, I love your whole schoolgirl badass look. It kinda turns me on.” he said. Gaige’s eyes grew wider and she swallowed slowly. 

“Eh, but I know you’re only, what? Seventeen as a few months ago? Happy belated birthday, kiddo. We’ll bring this up again in what, 8,9 months? See, I’m not the bad guy.” he   
flashed a grin, “Take her away to her workroom, and make sure she’s tied and gagged on the way there, although I don’t think she will pose much of a threat to you anymore. 

Jack spun around in his chair once she was gone. Today was like Christmas for him, and he was loving every minute of it. Maybe he would even give his secretary a raise. 

“Bring in the next vault hunter! And surprise me this time!” he said. He didn’t bother looking at the video screen, he waited for his surprise to come in through the doors. The large gunzerker Salvador was shuffled in, bound and gagged just like the last two. 

“The gunzerker, the jerk who stopped my takeover of his crap town and ripped my men limb from limb sending one home to tell me about his failure. I killed him for failing,   
but you were the reason for that failure. How big are your frigging balls? Ten pounds a piece? No wonder you’re so short, they’re dragging you down. I’d love to kick them in. Hey,   
you.” Jack gestured to one of his men, “Go kick his balls for me, I don’t feel like getting up.” 

Two hyperion soldiers held Salvador there and the other one gave him a swift kick. Salvador buckled to his knees. 

“Now tear off his arm just like he did to my man.” Jack said. Salvador started squirming and shouting through his gag. The same hyperian soldier started feeling Salvador’s arm to find a good pulling point, and Jack waved him off. 

“Nah, I’m just kidding. Stop it, let him get to his feet.”   
Salvador struggled without the use of his hands to recover from the kick and get to his feet. Jack laughed at him. 

“You know, it took me a while to figure out a punishment for you. At least five minutes. You’re strong, you know. I could send you off to fight in my new fighting colosseum, but you love violence too much for it to be a true punishment, although my bets would have been on you, buddy. You don’t seem to have a problem with physical damage or pain, since you did become a vault hunter and have a history of stuffing your body full of drugs. I had to mentally and emotionally cut off your arm, break both of your legs, and make you crawl back to me only have it start all over again. You were a heard case to crack, but that’s why I get paid the big bucks.” Jack chuckled at his own joke. 

“Anyways, you like blowing stuff up, and violence, so I need to take that away from you. So, I’m giving you a job. Congrats, you’re going to get paid minimum wage, and weapons are strictly prohibited. Get this, you’re going to be my call center representative! You have to solve stupid people’s petty problems with Hyperion, all the while talking up me and my company. Oh, and if you break any of the rules, like yelling at a customer or losing your temper, or heck, getting a low satisfaction rating, we’re going to cut off an appendage. Toes, to fingers, and, oh, why not! We’ll throw in ripping out your teeth one at a time, give you a few more chances before we cut off your arms, legs, and tongue. Good luck getting that satisfaction rating if you can’t even talk! You’ll be escorted by guards to your quarters, a white room with nothing but a phone inside. It’s your workplace and your home! Get used to it, pumpkin, cause it ain’t gonna change till you die. Oh, and if you do try to kill yourself or get us to kill you, well, you’re not going to like what happens to you.” Jack waved goodbye as they took Salvador away. 

“Who’s next, buckaroos?” he asked, looking once more at the video monitor. 

“Bring me my pet.” he said. Krieg was pulled from the line and he was thrashing for all he was worth. They hadn’t bothered gagging him due to the mask, and everyone knew you shouldn’t remove a psycho’s mask. 

“RUN, HIDE, DIE!!!!” Krieg shouted as he was brought in, repeating it over and over until a soldier slapped a patch on him and he went limp.

“I’d use your real name, Krieg, but I don’t want you getting ahold of yourself.Kill many people recently? Of course you have, you’re a psycho, and a strong one at that. Best one I ever made.You know, I miss the days when it was just me and you, and about a dozen doctors who were under my orders to work on you. You truly are a masterpiece. When I catch Roland, I’m going to do the exact same thing to him.”

Krieg twitched, and Jack laughed. 

“You’re still trying to fight it? Give up, you’re trapped forever. But hey, the bright side is you’re going right back to the doctors you managed to escape the first time. Congratulations, buddy. You’re my pet forever, and I get to do whatever I damn well want with you. I’ll be seeing you soon.” He smiled and gave a cheeky wave as the guards dragged the limp Krieg off. 

“Alright, get me the next one already, bring in the princess for me. And remove this guy’s gag, I wanna talk with him.”   
Axton was brought in and placed into the chair. 

“Well hello cupcake. How does it feel knowing you got trapped by me?” Jack asked. Axton spat at Jack. 

“Burn in hell, douchebag.” he said. 

“Those are some fighting words. Do you use them in front of your little friend Gaige? She seems a little young to be around words like that.”   
Axton’s face didn’t change. 

“You know, all the rest of your friends except for your weird robot one are being tortured as we speak. My personal favorite is Gaige, although Salvador is up there as being one of the best torture methods I’ve ever used. It’s psychological and physical.” 

“What are you hoping to get out of this?” Axton said. 

“I don’t know, revenge for you guys being a pain in my ass? That’s a start at least. I’ve also planned on getting something out of nearly every one of you vault hunters. Maya is helping reload the vault key, Gaige is forced to build me robots, Salvador-ha- Salvador is a call center employee for Hyperion customer care, and Krieg is back to being Krieg.”

“I hate you, Jack. I might have been rough on the battlefield, but you, you’re just sick.” Axton said. Jack shrugged. 

“That’s the price I pay for being a hero. Sacrifices must be made.” 

“You’re not a hero.” Axton sneered. Jack narrowed his eyes. 

“Listen up, cupcake, I’m letting you live. Only heroes let the villain live.” he said. 

“You can kiss my ass.” Axton said. 

“See, this is why I let them ungag you. You’re fun. I can’t intimidate you as easily as I did little Gaige, and you don’t speak in incoherent babbling like Krieg. It’s fantastic. You know, I’ve filmed you guys in action. You certainly are a sight on the battlefield, with a good mix of arrogant and handsome. It reminds me, well, it reminds me of me.” 

“I’m too good to be associated with someone like you.” Axton said.   
“Well, soon it will be impossible to tell us apart. You see, I really like your body, and not in a sexual way, well, kinda in a sexual way. See, since you killed my body double right before getting picked up by my trap in opportunity I need a new one. You, princess, are perfect. You’ve got a good height, a good build, you got a good face. The surgery should be minimal. I mean, it will still hurt like hell, but you’re the perfect candidate, cupcake. They’ll just fix your face, add a voice modulator to your throat, do a bit of tweaking on your body, and then bore a huge hole down your temple and implant computer parts so that we can erase your personality and make you my slave. Don’t worry though, you’ll only act like me some of the time, the rest you’ll be a silent, obedient zombie doing exactly what I tell it to. I, for one, am excited. I’ve always wanted to have sex with myself and it never felt right to do it to poor jimmy- or timmy, whatever his frickin name was.” 

“So, you’re saying…” Axton paused. His eyes were wide and his lip quivering. Jack wondered for a gleeful moment if Axton was going to cry. Instead, Axton suddenly set his jaw in and raised an eyebrow at Jack. 

“That you brought us all here to monologue?” Axton said, “Skag Piss, Jack, I thought you were evil and going to torture us, but i didn’t think it would be the form of you boring us on and on. You know what, just get it over with, I’m good for it. It’s better to have a hole drilled through my temple than to hear you speak for another moment.” 

“You know what, kiddo, just for that I’m going to leave a small piece of you intact. You’re going to watch as I force you to do unspeakable things in my name, and with my face. I was offering you a mercy. And you know what? Maybe I’ll just find and marry your ex-wife, huh? How about that, buddy.” 

“Are we finished here?” Axton asked, sounding more than a little bored. Jack squirmed a little. He thought that he had the upper hand, yet this insolent creep was undermining it. 

“Make sure he’s awake for the whole thing. Paralyze him, of course, but I want him to feel every moment that he’s becoming more and more like me. Oh, and remind him every time you do something that it’s completely irreversible.” The soldiers nodded and dragged Axton away. Jack frowned once the Commando was gone. He had lost control of the situation there. He had hoped Axton would react the same way Gaige had, maybe even start begging for his life, but he didn’t. Oh well, at least Jack had one more stinking vault hunter to torture and manipulate. 

“Send in the- I don’t know what he is, a robot? I honestly don’t care what he is, just send him in.”   
The vault hunter walked in with square shoulders and a proud look. Jack didn’t even know how that was possible for a faceless being look proud, but that’s how the blank expession came across. The readout on Zero’s display was blank, and only showed the cold reflection of the room. 

“You know, people are placing bets around Helios as to what you are. Some say cyborg, others robot, some think you’re just some sort of ninja human. I don’t care. Either way I’m going to tear you limb from limb and find something to do with the remains of your body.” Jack said, “Remove his helmet.”   
The guards surrounding zero reached out to touch the edges of his helmet, and their fingers buzzed and glitched as they got close. They pulled away. 

“Dammit he’s in deception mode! Everybody spread out and search, he can’t be too far!. And someone try to disable his illusion, he’s invisible for as long as it’s active!” Jack stood up sharply and shouted at everyone in the room. They scattered, searching every corner and crevice and coming up empty, even after the deception had faded. It was very likely that Zero had already escaped the room, entering deception some time before coming inside. Maybe he had even slipped out while Axton was being led out.

Jack pressed the intercom button on his desk and accessed every intercom and communication systems all across Helios. 

“Attention piss-faces, this is Jack. There is a vault hunter on the run somewhere on Helios, but don’t worry, we’ll find him, and the first person who does will get a promotion. All transport systems will be offline until ew find him, and all digistruct systems will be disabled. I also need a firing squad and janitorial crew to come to my office. We need to blow the brains out of the assholes responsible for losing him, and then I need my office cleaned. Jack out, losers.” 

All across Helios, Jack’s words echoed, and Helios exploded in a flurry of activity. In the transport center to Pandora, where Maya was being secured onto a prisoner ship to Pandora, she smiled. Inside of a locked up workshop, Gaige smiled sadly. Salvador started laughing wildly in his white, padded office room. In a laboratory, doctors were about to digistruct chainsaws to use on Krieg when it all shut down. Where Axton was being prepped for surgery, he threw back his head and laughed. Underneath Jack’s trapdoor in his office where the lights were all off, a sudden red light appeared in the darkness:  
:)


	2. Convergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is scrambling to capture Zero before he can free the other vault hunters.  
> The people of sanctuary are listening closely to hyperion news to gather information on their friends and get an unexpected ally.

Back in Sanctuary, Mordecai intercepted a transmission from Helios. 

“Hey, everyone, listen to this-.” He sent out the transmission to Lilith and Roland’s echo casters.

“Attention Piss-faces, this is Jack…” 

As the transmission ended, Lilith came on. 

“God help them.” she said.   
***********************************************************************************************************  
Axton was paralyzed as they strapped him onto the surgery table, although it looked like   
it could easily double as a torture table. Given what they were doing to him, he concluded that it   
was meant for both. He was strapped on in case the paralyzation wore off, which was probably   
wise since he would take any chance he had to escape, and would kill every single person in   
the room with him if he could. 

The surgery had been delayed until the surgeons could find the right instruments, since   
they couldn’t just digistruct them. It also took them time to gather all of the surgeons, since all   
transport was shut down and some of them were on the other side of helios. 

A doctor wearing a face mask came up and sat next to Axton’s face. He pulled down the   
mask to show a disturbingly familiar smile. The doctor, while clearly not Jack, had the exact   
same smile and teeth as Jack. 

“Hi there, Axton. I’m your head surgeon for today, and a certified Jack specialist. Today,   
we’re going to turn you into the most incredible man in the whole solar system, at least   
physically. You’re very lucky, since not many get chosen by Jack himself to get this procedure   
done. And a full body procedure! I mostly work on small parts, like doing mouth and ears, but   
since the main Jack specialist is on Eden 5 and transports have been shut down, it falls on me.   
Because this was last minute, Jack will permit me to get another part of myself surgically   
changed to look like him. I think I want the neck this time- or maybe the eyes. I’d ask you what   
you thought, but you can’t speak. Or move.” The doctor patted Axton’s cheek. He turned to his   
nurses.

“Let’s start on the left side and work towards the right. We’ve been instructed by Jack to   
make this as painful and drawn out as possible, and I intend to make him proud. This surgery   
normally takes 22 hours, and we’re going to take even longer, so buckle in. I also want to let the   
paralyzation fade enough so that he’s screaming before we inject him, I know Jack wants video   
footage of that. Hand me a scalpel”

The doctor reached to the side for his assistant to hand him one. Before the assistant   
finished handing it off, the scalpel was snatched by Zero, who had just appeared behind the   
doctor. He took the knife and slid it across the doctor’s throat, splattering blood everywhere. The   
assistant tried to bolt, and Zero threw the knife at her, catching her in the back. He grabbed a   
handful of other tools and threw them at the other panicking assistants. A drill piece went   
through another assistants eye, another one went through a throat. However, the final assistant   
managed to get through the exit door before Zero could end his life. 

Zero turned back to Axton, ignoring the escapee and choosing instead to unhook the   
restraints. He picked up Axton gracefully, pulling him over his shoulders like a sack of flour. If   
Axton had any control over his body he would have protested, but for now he was resigned to   
have Zero’s broad shoulder digging into his gut. Zero bent down, scrounging up an ID badge   
from the doctor and an extra scalpel. While Axton couldn’t see everything was going on, he saw   
the knife. He would have laughed if he could.

God help hyperion  
********************************  
“Hey assholes!” Jack’s voice crackled from the poor Pandoran radio, which was hacked   
into Helios’ feed. . Lilith and Roland leaned in intently. Mordecai stayed leaning back, although   
his body language changed subtly to show he was listening. Brick was playing with a bobble   
head toy version of Marcus. 

Tannis soon patched in to the Hyperion security system announcements and some of its   
video feed, getting some grainy images and rough audio. They had been following intently ever   
since, and they knew that Axton and Zero were safe for now.

“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen here.” Jack’s voice crackled on, “Since you   
keep finding security badges at the same rate we’re blocking them, I’m going to stop sending   
guys into you. I’m going to flood the whole area with poisonous gas, screw revenge! I just want   
you jackasses dead.” 

Lilith drew in her breath, and there was a sharp crunch as the bobble head was crushed   
in Brick’s hand. Mordecai raised an eyebrow and turned; he hadn’t realized that Brick had even   
been listening. 

“C’mon Slabs.” Brick mumbled 

“Hey, they made it this far. If they could come face to face with Jack and still live, twice,   
then poisonous gas isn’t going to set them back.” Lilith said. 

“But Axton’s down for the count. It’s just Zero trying to save both of them.” Mordecai said. 

“He’s right, Lilith, the odds aren’t looking good.” Roland said, “That being said, they are   
vault hunters.” 

 

“You also have me.” Angel’s voice snapped the radio into clarity, “Sorry it took so long to   
get back to you. I’ve been busy making sure that none of the vault hunters are getting harmed,   
and helping Tannis hack into Hyperion’s network. If you guys allow me better use of your echos,   
I could get you much clearer images and audio.” 

“Angel, open up the vents and pump inside as much poisonous gas as you can. I want   
these vault hunters dead! And lock those doors up, I don’t want anyone getting in or out!” Jack’s   
voice rang out. 

“I need you to help me,” she urged “you need to finish what the other vault hunters   
started. I need you to get to the bunker. I will do my best to keep you updated, but i’m going to   
have my hands full. Keep your echos turned on, and I’ll get back to you as soon as you can.” 

“How do we know we can trust you?” Lilith said, “You’ve already betrayed us once so far.   
You’re Jack’s AI!” 

“I know it’s not easy to trust me again, but you need to if you want to save your friends.   
Just know that I’ve been working with Zero, and I think this could be it; we could defeat Jack   
once and for all.” 

“It sounds like a lot of empty words to me.” Mordecai said. 

“Angel? Why aren’t they dead?” Jack asked

“Please, just trust me.” 

“I trust her.” Roland said, “I said it before to our fellow vault hunters, and I’ll make that   
same decision again. I can’t speak for all of my colleagues, but I’ll go alone if I have to if it   
means I can save their lives.” 

 

He stood up and adjusted his echo, allowing Angel to be fully patched in. Angel sighed   
with relief

“---Thank you Roland.” she said. Roland nodded and jumped down from the ledge   
towards the fast travel machine. Brick followed. Mordecai and Lilith stared at each other, unsure   
of what to do. After a moment, they heard Jack’s voice once more.

“Angel! I said I wanted the doors locked and poisonous gas filling in, not the friggin doors   
opening! What are you doing?” 

Angel led out a scream. 

“I’m sorry Jack, someone’s tampering with my systems. I think it’s someone on Helios.”   
she said. The audio cut out for a moment, and then she came back on. 

“That’ll only distract him for so long. Please hurry.” 

Mordecai and Lilith looked at each other and stood up. They both tuned in their echos   
and sent a message to Roland. 

“You take care of Opportunity, we’ll meet you at thousand cuts.”   
*******************************************************************************************************  
Salvidor was being driven crazy. He was put in a small white room with a small cubical   
space in the corner in a dull grey. There was a ancient computer complete with a tower and   
screen, and all of them were padded, and virtually indestructible. 

“Welcome to Hell, Salvador!” Jack’s voice told him in his ear where Hyperins had jammed in a   
device that Salvador's thick fingers couldn’t dig out. On his neck was a shock collar locked in   
place, and a bracelet on his right hand that tracked his performance. 

“So, I realized with an idiot like you, we’d have to start cutting pieces off right away and   
you’d be dead within the day, so i’m going to add a bonus to you- It’s a dog collar, cause you’re   
my bitch. Anyways, you mess up, you get a strong, painful shock which gets stronger as we go,   
and the score on your bracelet will start to go down. You go too low on your bracelet and we   
chop off a finger or two, and the whole system resets” 

Salvador had then tried to chuck the computer system, only to realize that it was   
lightweight and made out of a soft plastic. It wouldn’t break, and it couldn’t break anything. He   
had felt a strong shock that sent him to the floor. 

“You think we could give you something you can break? Come on, we’re hyperion.   
Everything is designed to be demoralizing to…. What?” Jacks voice had then broke off , “What   
do you mean Axton… SHI..” And then Jack’s voice cut out, and Salvador was left alone. So he   
sat in his indestructible prison, trying to recover from the intense pain he was sent through. It   
had only been an hour since he had been locked in here, but it already felt like an eternity. 

The phone had rung twice. He was supposed to answer the horrid device to stop the   
tinny ring to stop and talk to a hyperion customer support. The first time he let it ring through,   
and was met with a terrible shock, and his bracelet flashed, letting him know that his score was   
decreasing. The second time he actually answered it, a screen popped up to give him a script to   
say. Of course he tried to deviate from the script and cuss out the caller, and was met with the   
other side of the line clicking off before he even got the second word out and was met with   
agonizing electrocution. Once more his bracelet flashed. 

“Damn Hyperions” he mumbled to himself as he got back on his feet from the painful   
shocking. He wondered what was happening to his fellow vault hunters right now. Jack had said   
something about Axton, and he hoped that meant Axton was giving Jack hell, or that anyone   
was. Salvador thought about Jack being thrown in his position and laughed. He’d probably   
shock Jack just for fun. 

A little while later, Salvador bit his own finger so that it would bleed and began drawing   
naked women on the walls. While he wasn’t a particularly good artist, he was proud of his very   
vulgar work. He was going to move on to drawing what he would do to Jack when they finally   
got him when the door suddenly slid open. Standing in the doorway was Zero’s tall, lanky frame.

“AMIGO!” Salvador exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide. Zero took a moment to scan   
the room. 

“Impressive artwork.” Zero said, his voicing giving no indication to whether or not he was   
joking.

“Friend, you could write a million haikus about my artwork.” Salvador said, and then   
embraced his fellow vault hunter. He pulled away, noticing that Zero was covered in blood and   
had a hyperion issued gun in his hand. Zero passed it to him and Salvador hefted it in his   
hands. 

“What, no second one?” 

“I need your arm/ to carry more than guns/ you must carry friends.” Zero said. He  
gestured outside of the room. Salvador peeked outside to see Axton lying against the wall. 

“What happened to him. Does he need healing?” Salvador asked. 

“He only needs time/ he has become paralyzed/ we cannot leave him.” 

“Why do I have to carry him?”

Zero’s response was pulling out his katana and holding it in both of his hands, and then   
shrugged. 

“I get it, amigo. I’ll carry the meat bag.”.  
*************************************************************************************************************

“I was just doing my job!” Brick said defensively, blood dripping from the voice modulator   
he had just ripped from a Jack lookalike’s throat. 

“You didn’t need to do it so violently. I think that guy was still alive.” Roland said. 

“He isn’t now.” Brick said. Roland shook his head and activated the fast travel. They   
appeared at the entrance to thousand cuts where Lilith and Mordecai were shooting down stray   
Rakks. 

“Hi guys!” Claptrap’s horrific voice rang out. 

“What took you guys so long?” Lilith asked, “We’ve been waiting for you.” 

“I wasn’t certain you guys would show up.” Roland said. 

“And miss out on all the fun? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” she laughed, trying to hide   
the fact that she was now blushing. 

“Can we get going? I’m losing brain cells the longer I’m around this claptrap unit.”   
Mordecai said. 

“I can hear you!” Claptrap said.

“I know.” 

“Yeah, let’s do this, just like old times.” Lilith said. They reloaded their weapons and   
headed towards no man’s land.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for taking 4 months to get the next chapter of this out. Finals and work took up all of my time, and this chapter took many of rewrites to get it where it is.


	3. One Left Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lilith, Brick, Roland, and Mordecai are attempting to infiltrate Angel's Bunker in their friend's stead while the other vault hunters are trying desperately to get free of Handsome Jack's grasp.

Gaige sat in her room, trying to choke back tears. Jack had asked her to build him his own deathtrap, and it disgusted her thinking of him having his own customized robot. 

Her room was small, with a worktable, a cot, a large screen, and a digistruct box where they would send her supplies. The door was heavy and locked with complicated codes that would take a genius to crack

“Hey, Princess.” Jack’s voice filled the room, “Chop Chop cupcake. I haven’t seen much working from you, just a lot of your boo-hooing. 

“Go to hell, Jack.” Gaige said. 

“Tsk tsk, that’s no way to treat your boss, and the person who literally holds the fate of your parents in their hands.” 

The screen in her room lit up, and she saw her parents in the cage, with the same terrified expression on their faces. The psychos were converging on them once more, clawing through the bars.

“Now, say you’re sorry, Kitten, and old Jack can make this all go away.” 

Gaige didn’t want to see it, but she couldn’t turn away. The terrified faces of her parents and they way they clutched at each other. It all seemed… remarkably familiar. Gaige blinked, and watched carefully. She had a theory forming in her head. She just had to test it out. 

“I’m sorry, Handsome Jack, sir. Please leave them alone.” Gaige said.

“That’s what I like to hear. Next time it won’t be so easy” Gaige watched closely at the screen as the psychos ran off from her parents, and watched her parents relax. It was identical to the way they had before. That son of a skag was using a recording! Or rather, one of his hapless assistants was using a recording. Why wouldn’t they be using a live feed, or at least mix up the recording? The easiest answer is that they didn’t have any more recordings of her parents. It would be a gamble to rely on that answer; it could be just an employee’s simple mistake. But Gaige had gone on risky gambles before, like cutting through her own arm or getting a one way ticket to Pandora. 

She straightened up and began placing an order for supplies and equipment. She was going to build Jack his Deathtrap, but he was never going to get his hands on it. It was time to place her bets.   
**************************************************************************************  
Axton, Salvador and Zero headed towards the scientific research area of Helios in order to find Krieg. Axton was still weak on his feet, but he was recovering quickly. This was good considering that the closer they got, the more hyperion guards were filling the hallways. These weren’t average Hyperion Soldiers, either. These were Commandos and Freedom Fighters; some of the toughest soldiers out there. The vault hunters only had half working, green rated shields which they scavenged from some low level soldiers, and the bullets barely stopping before getting to their skin. It wasn’t a comfortable situation to be in. 

Salvador was about to turn a corner when Zero abruptly stopped him.

“Be sure to prepare/ We will face an army/ It could be our last.”

“How many soldiers are we looking at?” Axton said. 

“32 heartbeats/ 28 electric pulses/ at the very least.” Zero replied. 

“Damn. Bots and soldiers” Axton said, “Their going to rip right through us.”

“At least we won’t go down without a fight.” Salvador said, “If only I had my Vladofs…” 

“Give me a sec, I might have a plan.” Axton said

“Are you kiddos going to try to fight them or what? You guys are so boring; sitting around and planning.” Jack’s voice came through on the intercoms, “Let’s speed this up, okay? Hyperion, get them.” 

Axton whipped out his SMG while Salvador pulled out his two assault rifles, beginning to gunzerk. Zero took a step back and prepped his blade.

The horde of Hyperion fighters ran to them, and the vault hunters opened fire. 

At first, the vault hunters had the upper hand. Zero was flashing around and impaling soldier after soldier. Salvador was double firing into the crowd, taking baddies down two at a time, and Axton hung back taking shots of opportunity from a distance. However, the tide of battle was turning against them, especially once reinforcements appeared from the other side. They pushed the vault hunters towards the center of the hallway, circling around them so that there was no way out. 

A loader bot started walking towards them, ready to blow them up when suddenly it was snatched up in a purple ball and began taking environmental damage. 

“You boys can’t do anything without me, can you?” Maya asked from the edge of the enemy line. She tossed a large pack up in the air and Axton caught it. It was his Mrs.! He whipped it out and it began firing. 

“I’ll tell you what; I’ll get you the rest of your items if you guys can actually fight your way back to me.” she said. 

*************************************************************************************************************

Gaige’s plans had three parts and three bets. The first one was that her killer robot would be able to blow through the door without blowing Gaige to pieces. The second one was that she would be able to take out her mechanical arm within that time before Jack (or any of his underlings) would be able to take control of it. The third was that she would be able to get through Helios with only one arm and no weapons and be able to find her friends or an escape route. 

She looked up at her floating hunk of metal and smiled. It was smaller, and it was weaker, but there was no denying it; Gaige had created a Deathtrap. It didn’t have the spikes or the shields or the lasers, but it had another nasty surprise inside. 

“Hey, Jackhole, watch this!” She shouted, leaping behind her cot and activating the new deathtrap. Then she quickly covered her eyes and ears. The digistruct system inside of it zapped and sputtered and started smoking. It suddenly blew with a powerful digistruct explosion with power akin to max anarchy. Gaige peaked over her cot. There was a smoldering crater in the middle of the room and everything had become blackened. The doors had been ripped off its locks and left hanging limply by its hinges.She looked at the cot, finding that the thin mattress had been pierced by several hot pieces of scrap metal. 

Her arm began beeping as a warning. She grabbed one of the pieces of scrap metal and rammed it in between her arm and metal and started prying at it. Wires ripped and popped and her flesh tore. She screamed in pain and blood dripped down as wires snapped. Arms, even mechanical ones- weren’t meant to be ripped off like that. However, Gaige fought through the pain. She kept telling herself that she sawed through her own arm once before and this wasn't that different. Finally the arm dropped off, beeping loudly and twitching. She smiled through gritted teeth and walked out of the room, tucking the metal shard in her belt. She turned back to one of the security cameras and flipped it off. 

“Give my parents my regards, asshole!” she said, “Or not.” She grinned and skipped down the hall, leaving the room behind.   
*********************************************************************************************************

The rest of the Hyperion soldiers were mowed down by the Vault hunters relatively quickly. They stood on the pile of carcases and metal, and Salvador was quickly scavenging the Hyperion weapons. 

“I wouldn’t bother with that if I were you.” Maya said. She slung off a backpack and tossed it to the ground. It hit with a thunk, and Zero opened it, pulling out his purple- rarity Jakobs sniper rifle. A smiley face appeared on his screen. 

“You son of a skag.” Axton grinned, pulling out his own weapons and shields and equipping them along with his Echo device.

“Hey, where’s Gaige? Her arm was a beast to carry.” 

“We haven’t gotten to her yet” Axton said

“Well, we have to be careful. She’s the only one of us with the most to lose, and you’d better believe that Jack is using it against her.” Maya said. 

“Attention Hyperion Employees, if you see a girl in Pigtails skipping around and missing her arm, do not hesitate to shoot! She is incredibly dangerous. If you hesitate, she will kill you with a shank,” Jack said. There was a voice in the background and Jack cleared his voice, “Oh, now she has a gun. Dumbasses.” 

The Vault Hunters looked at each other for a moment, and then busted out laughing. 

“That’s our girl.” Axton said, admiration in his eyes. 

“You guys were heading towards Krieg, right?” Maya said. Zero nodded. 

“I have a feeling like our girl will need a bit of help. I think one of needs to find her and give her a hand.” 

“Or an Arm!” Salvador said with a cheeky grin. Maya rolled her eyes. 

“I’ll go.” Axton said, “Do you know how I can find her?” Maya shook her head. 

“Angel is down while Roland and his team are infiltrating the Bunker. While Jack is distracted we take a hyperdrive ship down to Pandora’s surface. From there we wil fast travel to sanctuary.” 

“Why we aren’t using fast travel in the first place?” 

“Jack’s put a lock on all travel, including fast travel. Thankfully Angel has set up a way to escape via prison ship. So you go and find Gaige, and we’ll meet you at our exit point with Krieg.” Maya updated his echo log to give him a waypoint. 

“Stay safe, Axton.” she said. He winked at her and slung the backpack over his shoulder.

“I never do.” he said, running off to find Gaige.  
************************************************************************************

The three of the Vault hunters moved quickly and quietly through the R&D department in their search for Krieg. 

“This place gives me the creeps,” Salvador said. 

“It’s worse than the wildlife exploitation preserve.” Maya said. While there were less live, mutated skags running around, there were more human mutations kept behind the tightly locked doors. It was going to be nearly impossible to find Krieg with all of the deranged Psycho voices screaming. It was giving Maya a headache. To make matters worse, her tattoos were flaring. There must have been slag experimentation going on here.

“I don’t know how we’re going to find him.” Maya said, rubbing her temple. 

“Krieg said something once/ that you two were connected/ Try to feel it.” Zero said. 

“Huh, weirdly cryptic, but I’ll try.” She said. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the friendly psycho. She could almost hear his voice. It was shouting at her. 

“DUCK!!!” she opened her eyes to see Krieg leaping at her. She ducked, and Krieg went over and leapt onto a previously invisible hyperion assassin, ripping the guy’s helmet-and subsequent head- off. 

“That was-surprisingly effective.” Maya said. 

“So are we ready to get out of this skag heap?” Salvador asked. Maya looked at Zero, and the two of them nodded. 

“We’d better hurry. We don’t have a lot of time left until the others reach the Bunker.” Maya said.

**************************************************************************************************

Jack sat on his desk chair and stared at the monitors, his blood pressure rising as he caught glimpses of the vault hunters on his security videos. All six were free. He pressed his assistant button. 

“Martin, how’s that scan coming?” he asked, “I want to know who has been hacking my Angel. Now.” 

“It’s almost complete, sir. I will send the report to your office when it finishes.” 

Jack tapped his fingers impatiently for about a minute until he got the alert on his screen. 

Scan StatUS: Negative

 

“Martin.” Jack said, “Go kill yourself as a favor to me.” 

“What’s wrong sir?” 

“The fact that you’re alive.”

“Sir?” Martin’s voice was shaking. 

“Yeah, go do it. I can send you one of our top guns to shoot yourself in the head with, or you can just throw yourself out of an airlock. Surprise me, I just want to see your corpse in about five minutes” 

“Uh… I… Uh.” 

“Oh, I get it, It’s hard to choose. Well, come on in here, I’ll let you choose between my personal gun, my personal airlock, or my personal penknife.” 

The door slid open, and a nervous employee walked in. Jack gestured for him to get closer. 

“Sir I was… Uh…” 

“HA! You’re shaking!” Jack laughed, “You look like you’re ready to piss yourself! Hha, I’m kidding, don’t kill yourself.” 

“Thank you sir.” 

“I mean, where am I going to get another assistant? I just wanted to see the look on your face. Hey, cupcake, smile! You’re okay, for now. Just run that scan again, and again nd again, until you can find whoever is hacking into my Angel.” 

“Sir, have you ever considered that maybe she was ly-” 

Jack didn’t even let him finish the sentence before he shot him in the head. Jack pressed a button to call in a janitor to clean up that mess and went back to his monitor, and ran the scan on his employees to see if any of them were influencing the Angel code. 

Negative

Negative 

Negative

Each round came up with a negative scan. Jack’s breath caught. His little girl was going to be in so much trouble. It was a good thing he disconnected her from any of the controls in case she was helping the vault hunters. He had to come up with a good punishment for her later, once he handled all of the vault hunters running wild. 

He ran his fingers through his hair, taking in a deep breath to try and calm down. He hated being agitated. It made his hero persona crack just a little, and his mask started fitting poorly. 

He could worry all day about his daughter, but first things first he needed to clear out the dead body laying on his floor, and get a new assistant. He sent out an email to a random hyperon employee on Helios congratulating them on becoming his new assistant, and then he messaged the janitorial staff to clean up. Then he took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. 

The alarms blared out with a sudden, ungodly sound and flashing light. 

Warning Warning BNK3R has been destroyed. BNK3R has been destroyed. Angel facility as been breached. 

This snapped Jack back into his cold reality. 

“The HELL?” he screamed. He changed his monitor view to the Angel facility, and sure enough, four vault hunters were traveling inside. He minimized all other views and tabs- this was his highest priority. He watched intently as they began destroying the eridium pumps surrounding and fueling his daughter’s shield.

“You better not kill my baby girl- or you’ll regret it” They kept going. 

“If you leave now, I might make your deaths quick.” Another eridium pump eviscerated. 

“Please- don’t kill my baby.” The last pump broke apart, and Jack felt a wave of nausea and anger. It was no longer time to speak and beg, it was time for him to act.   
**************************************************************************************

“Shoot it down!” Roland said, unlocking the last shield generator. Mordecai shot sharply and quickly, and his single shot exploded against the wires and pipes, destroying them almost instantly. Angel screamed in agony, and her shield fell down. Without the Eridium flow, Angel would die in minutes. Lilith raised her hands and phase-shifted Angel through. 

“What did you do?” Roland asked. 

“You’ll see when we get back to sanctuary.” 

“And what? Find a corpse on the ground to taunt Jack with? I don’t want to make him angrier while our friends are still up there.” 

“Angel! No!!!!! Where’s my baby?” Jack screamed from the monitors, “It wasn’t good enough just to kill her- you had to destroy her body too! I will make you pay for this! Every last one of you! I will rip out your still beating hearts and feed them to you, I will obliterate everyone you love, and everyone you’ve ever been in contact with! The universe will remember you as the people who never should have crossed Handsome Jack!” 

The area where Angel was blurred, and Handsome Jack himself appeared with a very powerful- and dangerous- looking gun. 

“Everybody, run!” Lilith said. 

“Don’t pick a fight with a man who has nothing left to lose, assholes.” he said.He fired shots at the vault hunters as they scattered and ran away. They were ready for Jack, and had a well timed exit plan. Roland was the last one left, tapping the fast travel machine and disintegrating before Jack had the chance to harm any of them. 

Jack was left alone in a now empty holding facility, without having caused any harm to the vault hunters who had killed his daughter. He didn’t even have his daughter’s body to mourn for. 

Despair began to creep into his heart and sorrow washed over him. Numbly he staggered over to the wall and leaned against him, too empty to cry. He- he was the hero, right? But heroes didn’t let their daughters die without making the people who did it pay for it. And here he was without vengeance and without his baby girl. 

“Sir!” Jack’s echo lit up with Mr. Blake’s voice, “The vault hunters who you had captured are all escaping.” 

A new feeling came bubbling up inside of JAck and it made him smile. Handsome Jack swelled with sweet rage. 

“Where?” he demanded, running to he fast travel station“Exit bay 42 on a prison transport ship.” 

Jack typed the codes in and he faded into digistruct light, gun in his hand and rage in his heart.

***************************************************************************************

Axton found Gaige battling three hyperion guards, and she was losing quickly. He had slammed into one of them, knocking them down where Axton finished the job with a skilled pistol shot. This let Gaige focus on the other two and quickly took them down. 

“Hello sexy.” She said, “thanks for your help, cutie, but I could have handled that.” Gaige said. Axton raised an eyebrow 

They had been running for quite some time, and Gaige didn’t have the endurance that he, a battle trained soldier, did (Even if he had recently been paralyzed.)

“We’re almost there. Just keep going” He said. She huffed and nodded. They only had a few more corridors to go before they reached the exit bay area where the rest of the vault hunters were waiting. 

Axton was about to run through when he hesitated and stopped at a corner, putting his back to the wall and leaned in. 

“Damnit! Jack knows we’re coming.” Axton said. Gaige peeked around the corner and saw a group of hyperion soldiers and loaderbots. 

“Leave it to me.” She raised her arm and snapped it back down, and suddenly a giant killer robot rushed in and started slashing through the lines. Axton nodded in appreciation and tousled her hair, and then went to follow the path Deathtrap carved out, making it to the final hallway.

This was it- the final stretch before they were free from Helios. They could see the open bay doors leading to empty sky and the reacquired prison transport ship filled with the rest of the vault hunters. Both Gaige and Axton felt a wave of relief wash over them. 

Behind them there was a electric pop and a figure formed from the localized fast travel station. Jack stood with a gun in his hand pointing at them. 

“Not so fast, kiddos.” he said. Axton and Gaige bolted into a sprint to get to the transport ship as Jack fired at them. Salvador and Krieg both fired at JAck, but his shield was to powerful to have bullets like that phase him. 

“Start the ship!” Axton shouted. If they were lucky, he and Gaige could jump on right as the ship would finish charging its hyperthrust. 

Axton made it first, hoisting himself onto the back of the ship. He turned around only to see that just a few feet away, Jack had managed to shoot Gaige’s leg. She wouldn’t make it before Jack would catch up to her.

“Damnit!” He cursed to himself, and he made a split second decision. 

Axton jumped down and grabbed Gaig, practically throwing her into the back of the hsip where Salvador and Krieg pulled her the rest of the way up. Axton had nearly got on himself

In the final moments when they were getting on, Gaige tripped before getting on. Axton hesitated, picking her up and the last moment and throwing her inside. Before starting the clamber in himself. He got his foot in and was about to hoist him the rest of the way up when Jack’s hand snaked around his neck and pulled him down, locking him in. Jack fired a few shots while Maya shouted for Zero to gun the power. The ship bolted out and left Helios- and Axton- behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I nearly had to split this one into two chapters! Let me tell you, I am so excited for the next Chapter. I will have to bump up the rating on this fic to Mature, but I think it's going to be worth it.   
> I am so grateful that I'm able to find time to work on this fic. I've been doing a lot of stuff with my life including ethnography papers and literature reviews, but this is something I do just for me. Thanks to all of you who still keep reading, I hope to make your day brighter.   
> Best of wishes  
> -lastoftheorder


	4. Freedom's Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has dark plans for the lone vault hunter remaining in his grasp.   
> Sanctuary finds a new wild-card ally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to give people a warning. This chapter has graphic violence, suicidal thoughts, PTSD, and trauma. If you have an issue with this, I will give a summary of the chapter at the endnotes so that you don't feel like you're missing out.   
> Also, I realize that when dealing with mental illness, it often gets stigmatized and misrepresented. I have not dealt with PTSD personally and don't often write about it. If I have misrepresented it in a negative way that could be fixed without ruining the integrity of the story, please contact me and I am more than willing to fix it.   
> Thank you, and enjoy reading.

Axton watched as his friends jumped into hyperdrive, blasting to the planet pandora without risk of being hit. Part of him felt his chest swelling with glory for helping to save all of them. The other part relt Jack’s arm squeeze against him and throw him to the ground. 

“You’re mine, Axton.” Jack said. He grabbed Axton by the collar and began dragging him through the hallways of Helios. Axton kicked and squirmed, trying desperately to get out of the man’s grasp. He twisted and Jack’s hand slipped. Axton leapt up and bolted as fast as he could. 

Blinding pain suddenly laced through his leg. Axton cussed and fell over. Jack put away his gun and stood over the fallen comando.

“Don’t do that again, Kitten.” Jack’s voice was cold. He reached down and grabbed Axton’s collar again to resume dragging him, smeared blood leaving a trail behind them. This didn’t stop Axton from trying to escape. Finally, Jack stopped and dropped Axton’s collar to give him a sharp kick in the stomach. Axton curled around his torso, gasping at the loss of air

“I’m done playing, kiddo.” Jack said, resuming his grasp on Axton’s neck. 

Soon the halls of Helios were crowded with employees wanting to catch a glimpse of their worshipped leader. One emboldened employee got in Jack’s way. 

“Handsome Jack, wow, I-” Jack whipped out his pistol and shot him without a second thought, and then he shot another few hyperion employees who happened to be in his line of site. The crowd dispersed in a hurry, leaving four dead bodies behind. Jack ignored them and continued on, making a beeline for the nearest elevator. 

Once inside, Jack typed in the codes to get to his office while Axton struggled to get to his feet, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t attack Jack straight on- that man had a shield that could survive the epicenter of a nuclear explosion. But Jack’s pistol- that had that power to ignore nearly any shield. If Axton could just grab it. Axton lunged, but Jack was ready for him. He grabbed Axton and slammed him against his knee and rolled him off onto the floor. 

“You bandits are all the same. You don’t know when to give up, do you?” Jack said, crouching beside where Axton lay. “I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do, Cupcake. No more games. I’m not going to send you to become Jackified anymore. I’m going to friggin’ torture you.” Jack dug his fingers into the hole in Axton’s leg, “I’m going to make you bleed.” Axton did his best to hold back a moan of pain, “I’m going to make you scream.” Jack dug in harder and Axton couldn’t hold back a whine of pain. Jack smiled. 

“While we were having fun up here, your bandit friends killed my daughter, and you distracted me from saving her in time.” Jack said, “As far as I’m concerned, that’s as good as shooting her yourself. Someone has to pay for that, and all the rest of your friends left you here. It’s time for you to know the true power of Handsome Jack.” He pulled out his fingers from Axton’s wounds and sucked the blood away, never looking away from Axton’s eyes. Once he finished, he pulled out his pistol from his holster and dropped it on Axton’s stomach. 

“Go crazy.” he said. Axton grabbed it, and rather than pointing it at Handsome Jack, he held it to the bottom of his own chin and pulled the trigger. 

It clicked hollowly. Axton tried a couple more times before dropping it. Damn biometrics. Handsome Jack just laughed, grabbing the gun and putting it back in its holster. Axton stared up at the ceiling in despair. 

Axton was screwed, and he knew it. There was no escaping Jack’s wrath...Unless… Axton’s mind reeled. He was going to do something very very stupid, and very very dangerous. 

Handsome Jack stood up as the elevator dinged and opened. He grabbed Axton’s collar once more to drag him into his austere office. Pandora’s purple light poured in through the large window behind Jack’s desk and glinted off of Jack’s golden statues of himself. Each one of Jack’s statues peered down at Axton’s like a condescending god. Axton was thrown to the middle of the room. Jack put his foot down on Axton’s chest while he rolled up his sleeves. 

“We are going to have a fun time tonight!” Jack exclaimed, “I don’t even know where to start! But the kid gloves are coming off.” 

“Y’know, you keep saying that, but do you really mean it, darling?” Axton managed to get out. Jack gave him a sharp kick in the gut. 

“Alright Get up.” Jack said. Axton struggled to his feet, and Jack decked him in the face. Axton reeled .Jack then put his hands on Axton’s shoulders to steady him, and then punched him again. This time Jack didn’t steady him, and Axton fell to the floor. He wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth 

“Damn, baby, you always this rough?” Axton coughed 

“I wouldn’t be a smartass if I were you, Cupcake.” Handsome Jack said, grabbing Axton’s shoulders and hoisting him up. Jack headbutted him, aiming for the bridge of Axton’s nose. Blood spurted out and Axton fell backwards, his head swimming. 

“That’s not how you kiss, darling. Would you like me to show you how it’s done?”   
Axton distantly wondered how close he was to dying when Jack snarled, deep and low. Axton wondered how close he was to dying when Jack picked him up and threw him over to the desk. Axton landed with a crack and nearly blacked out. 

I have to die. I have to die now!

Through the haze of pain, Axton looked around desperately for something- anything he could use. He reached around on the desk and saw a pencil holder, pens rolling around. A glint of Hyperion yellow glinted, and he saw a pe knife. If Axton could grab it, he could kill himself in moments by slitting his own throat. He snatched for it and managed to grab it, but before he could bring it to his own neck Jack grabbed his wrist. 

“Oh no you don’t.” Jack twisted through Axton’s fingers and slammed them against his desk. Axton’s wrist broke, and the knife fell free. Jack then grabbed the knife and slammed it through Axton’s hand, pinning it to the desk. Jack grabbed Axton’s throat and squeezed. 

“I am going to make you suffer.” Jack said. 

“Like your daughter did?” Axton managed to say through the fingers crushing his neck. Jack’s grip tightened. 

“You don’t get to talk about my daughter.” Axton could feel his vision hazing out. He just needed to push Jack further. 

“I… would… have… banged her… so damn hard.” he barely managed to get out. Suddenly the fingers holding his throat let go, and the knife was pulled out of his hand. Before he had time to think, Axton felt a sharp pain in his torso. It was shortly followed by another, and then another one. Jack was stabbing him with the penknife over and over again. Axton almost managed a smile, knowing that he would soon be dead. He passed out due to blood loss. 

Jack stood up, still clutching the bloody pen knife in his hands and slumped in his desk chair. His rage had subsided enough to know that he had messed up; in a way Axton had won. That son of a rakk had made Jack kill him, and Jack hadn’t even gotten Axton to scream. There was so much Jack wanted to do to him before Axton died! Maybe he could just kill the janitors that came in to clear Axton’s soon-to-be corpse or something. 

Jack opened his desk drawer to drop the bloody penknife inside to get out of his sight when something glowing bright red caught his eye. It was an Insta Health hypo, top of the line. It could bring someone back from the brink of death, repairing any wound and replenishing blood supply. Jack grabbed it and went to Axton, jamming it into the Commando’s neck. As the red fluid was pushed in, the bleeding stab wounds suddenly ceased and began closing up, and the swelling on his face began going down. Axton was still out cold, but he would’t die. 

“You didn’t think you could escape Handsome Jack that easily, did you princess? You didn’t even scream for me; was that because of your military training or your ex wife? Doesn’t matter, I’ll break through it just the same. You keep sleeping, because when you wake up you’re going to be in a living nightmare.” Jack stood up and activated his echo, calling his new assistant. 

 

“Hey, Vicky, I need a full box of insta healths and some of those new torture toys from R&D sent up to me as soon as possible.” 

“A full box of insta healths? Those have a hundred hypos per box!” 

Jack looked over at Axton. 

“You’re right. Better make that two.”  
**************************************************************************

Angel woke up, which came as a surprise to her. She was supposed to be dead! She couldn’t survive without a constant supply of Eridium, yet here she was, waking up. She felt endlessly weak and could barely breathe, but she was alive! 

She tried to think back at what had transpired before she ended up here. The Vault hunters had just shot the last of the Eridium pumps, and then there was a bright flash of light. She remembered being in a purple haze, and there was shouting. Then she woke up here. She looked around and saw she was in some sort of makeshift hospital. 

“Are you awake there, kid?” Lilith asked, standing up from where she was sitting at Angel’s bedside. 

“Where am I?” 

“You’re in sanctuary, and, more specifically, inside the Crimson Raiders headquarters. We had to move some things around, but we weren’t about to let you stay at Doctor Zed’s.” 

“How- how am I alive?” Angel asked, but before Lilith could answer, Scooter came barging in. 

“Lilith, why is Crazy Earl at my shop asking for a car in blue? What did you promise him?!” 

“Hey! It was for a good cause, just give him the car.” 

“But it’s one of my cars.” 

“Yeah, Crazy Earl likes them best. Look I’ll pay for it.” 

Scooter crossed his arms. 

“You know it’s not about the money. Wait- hey, is that there Angel awake?” Scooter went to Angel’s bedside. 

“Ain't’ you the prettiest thing this part of Pandora. The name’s Scooter, but you can call me whatever you like.” 

Angel smiled weakly. 

“I know who you are. I’ve read your file.” she said. 

“Look at that, she read my file! Ain't that the makings of a perfect relationship.” Scooter beamed. Lilith rolled her eyes. 

“So, how much are you charging for the car?” she asked. Scooter waved his hand. 

“You know what, I’ve decided it’s on the house, you know, since it’s being used to save this little lady’s life.” he said. He grinned and waved a little to Angel before making a hasty retreat.

“What’s this about a car?” Angel asked. 

“It’s a long story.” Lilith said, “So, you’ve probably noticed how you’re not dead.” 

“I was wondering about that.” 

“So, when we freed you from the Eridium pumps, we knew you’d bite it in a matter of   
minutes. Jack must have never intended you to live if you managed to escape. I knew I had to transport you somewhere you could still get an refined Eridium supply, and in a safe area, so I transported you to Crazy Earl’s stash. We hurried back to sanctuary as fast as we could, but in that time you blew through nearly half of it. Thankfully Tannis could whip something up that could give you a more… stable supply without killing you,” Lilith reached down and lightly picked up a tube pumping a purple liquid through it to her neck. The tube led down to her hip where there was a small machine stuffed with Eridium bars which were slowly dwindling down. 

“You guys did all of this… for me?” Angel asked. 

“Of course, you’ve helped us. I mean, you betrayed us that one time and everything, but other than that you’ve been a pretty good ally.” 

Angel sat up with a jerk. 

“The other Vault Hunters! Are they okay?” 

“Yeah, they’re all out hunting Eridium to make sure you have a stash. All except Axton.” Lilith’s face grew dark, “He… didn’t make it.” 

Angel’s heart sank. She was hoping that they all were alive. She reached up to thumb at her Hyperion control collar, only to find that it was missing. 

“What happened to my collar?” she said. 

“Tannis managed to get that off of you. It was a total beast to transport, but I guess trying to restrain the power of two sirens was too much for it. It had already partially short circuited when you got here.” 

“So I’m free.” Angel smiled. She closed her eyes and happily drifted back to sleep.  
*********************************************************************************************

The next day Angel was well enough to get out of bed. Even though she was in a weakened state due to the Eridium withdrawals, not having to spend all her energy charging the vault key and doing Jack’s bidding gave her a boost. Besides, this was her first time in a very long time where she wasn’t trapped in the same place. How long had it been since Jack locked her up? Ten, twelve years? She could hardly remember a time when she was truly free. 

The Crimson Raiders still operated around her, but she didn’t mind. It was refreshing. She liked seeing so many new faces of real human people. For the longest time all she saw was Handsome Jack’s in the flesh, and the rest were only digital pictures of people like the vault hunters. However, in the past year or so she didn’t even get to see the real Handsome Jack, either. This was just… incredible.

Gaige came to visit her, excited to meet someone her own age for once. 

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you, Angel. I’m Gaige.” she said, sticking out her arm. Angel took it and Gaige shook it so vigorously which rattled Angel. 

“It’s nice to meet you in person. You always seemed very interesting.” Angel said. 

“Yeah, well, that’s what sucks cause you know everything about me, and I know nearly nothing about you except that we’re kinda sorta the same age, and you’re the daughter of Handsome Jack and used to be an AI, and now you’re a siren.” 

“I always was a siren.” Angel laughed. 

“I know, but now you’re, like, real.” Gaige said, “Hey, so I wanted to ask… Do you want to go to the edge of sanctuary and watch a Pandoran sunset with me? I have hot chocolate and warm blankets.” 

Angel smiled and nodded.

“That sounds...it sounds fun. I might need your help getting there, though.” Angel said, 

“No problem!” Gaige said. She raised her arm and a large robot digistructed in front of her. Then Gaige scooped up Angel and set her on the shoulder of the robot. 

“Don’t worry, Deathtrap won’t bite you or impale you. Just sit back and let him do the work.” 

Angel grabbed the Robot’s head as it floated behind Gaige. They went out of the building and Angel finally got a good look at the sky. It was a slight orange haze, and it was beautiful. 

“I can’t believe I’m seeing this in person.” Angel said. 

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Gaige said. She took her to the edge where the   
concrete began breaking apart. Gaige already had the blankets out and ready as well as a large thermos with two chipped teacups. 

Deathtrap De-digistructed and Gaige caught Angel as she fell, putting her down on one of the blankets.

Angel’s mouth dropped open. Up there floating in the sky she looked down and could see the highlands down below captured in crimson and orange as the sun kissed the edge of the hills. Tears came to her eyes. 

“Oh!” She exclaimed. 

“Woah, is everything okay?” Gaige asked. Angel nodded. 

“I haven’t seen anything like this…since my mom passed. Jack didn’t let me go outside.”   
Angel said. Gaige suddenly filled with anger. 

“He what? I mean, I knew he was bad, but I didn’t think-” 

“Gaige, I haven’t left the sphere in the bunker since Jack put me there, and the only person I was ever allowed to see was Jack. I mean, I could watch security feed videos, if that counts.” 

Gaige shook her head, pouring hot chocolate into one of the teacups and handed it to Angel.

“These are cute. Where did you get these?” Angel asked. 

“TIny tina threw them at my head. I supposed that meant she didn’t want them anymore.” 

Angel laughed lightly. Gaige grinned and took a sip from her own. 

“So, what’s your favorite color?” she asked. 

“I- I don’t know. When I was a child I liked blue, but I don’t even know anymore.” Angel said. 

“Don’t think too hard about it. For example, mine’s purple cause I think it looks pretty.” Gaige said. 

“I guess… I like black, because when I was trapped by Handsome Jack I could close my eyes and pretend I wasn't there.” 

“That’s… That’s a start.” Gaige said, “And also really depressing. Like, seriously, what the hell is wrong with your dad? Worst father of the year award, hands down.” 

“I mean, he is Handsome Jack, a mass-murdering, narcisistic psychopath with a god complex, so I guess he wasn’t in the running for best father to begin with.” 

“Still, yeesh, you think he’d make an exception for his own daughter.” Gaige said, “Did he every, you know, act like a father rather than a slave master?” 

“When I was little, I guess.” Angel said, “He was normal then. He would tuck me into bed with my mom and read me stories. I would always ask for the same story, one about a little balloon that flies away but finds its way back home. He would laugh and tell it to me without needing to look at the book anymore. When I got hurt he would cradle me in his arms and sing me a little song. He liked brushing my hair and tying it up with green ribbons. Once my mom decided to go on a diet and he would sneak me treats like cake, or take me out to ice cream.” 

“Wow. I didn’t realize he could be so… Human.” Gaige said. 

“He’s not. Not anymore.” Angel said, “He died with my mother. That monster put a collar on me, and shaved my head to put in these metal implants. He locked me away where I was forced to do his bidding for years. Then he found Eridium, and he pumped me full of that until I felt like I would explode and then drain it out of me and it hurt. Oh God it hurt. And if I resisted it would hurt even worse, and I wanted to die, and he would come to visit, and he-” Angel broke down into sobs. Gaige wrapped her arms around her and let her cry. 

When Angel had stopped crying so hard, Gaige nudged her. 

“Hey, look, the stars are coming out.” Angel looked up at the sky and saw a few clouds drift lazily as a sea of stars began winking into existence glowing with a purple hue. Gaige smiled and reached over to adjust Angel’s blanket which had slipped off her shoulders.   
“I’m sorry for crying on you.” Angel whispered. 

“Never feel sorry for crying. You’ve been through hell,” Gaige said, “I mean, I cried my friggin heart out when I thought Jack had my parents. I cried when our ship left Axton behind on Helios. There’s so much to cry about, and that’s okay. We can cry, and we can fight, and we thank the world for our second chances.” 

Angel brushed away her tears and nodded, paused, and her face darkened. 

“Wait, did you say you left Axton behind?” 

“Yeah- Handsome Jack grabbed him and pulled him from the ship just as we were   
leaving- Jack had an army there, we couldn’t go back for him.” 

“I thought he died! If he was alive when you left him, he’s in a lot of trouble.” Angel said. 

“He’s going to become a Jack clone, I know.” Gaige said. 

“You don’t know what Jack would do. Turning Axton into a clone was a mercy in Jack’s mind. If Jack thinks I’m dead, and the rest of you are free, I doubt he’s going to be so merciful. If Axton is very very lucky he’s dead. You haven’t seen the true wrath of Handsome Jack.” Angel said. 

“What can we do? We can’t just form a siege around Helios.” Gaige said. Angel looked Gaige in the eyes. 

“We make a deal with him. Give me your echo”  
***********************************************************************************************************

Handsome Jack laughed watching the Commando try to dodge bullets from his own sabre turret. Not only that, but these were burrowing corrosive bullets witch would dig into his flesh and keep going, burning him with acid every inch of the way through. 

Axton screamed. Jack’s laugh deepened. The dumbass Commando had gotten himself shot, and once one went in, it was easier to get hit by the next one. And the next one. The screaming continued to the point where Axton was now a writhing, acid burned mess on the floor. Jack stopped the turret and pulled out a healing syringe. They couldn’t keep playing if Axton was dead! 

 

He walked over to the commando’s mangled body, admiring the acid burns sizzling against Axton’s skin. 

“You still with me kitten? You stopped screaming.” 

There was no answer, only a couple of twitches from the body. Jack sighed and plunged the syringe into the soldier’s heart. The skin around it began repairing itself, sending it through to the rest of his body. 

Axton took in a deep breath and let out a moan of pain. 

“Welcome back! Would you like to take a break?” Jack asked. 

“uhhuh.”

“Show me some respect. Say it. No, Beg.” 

“Please.” Axton whispered. 

“What was that, princess? I didn’t hear you.” 

“Please… Stop… Handsome Jack, sir.” 

“That’s what I like to here! Some Damn respect!” Jack straightened up. “Alright, we can take a break because I’m such a nice guy. And I need to change the ammunition on your dumbass turret. How do you feel about slag?” 

Axton let out a whimper. Jack smiled. He had broken the dumb soldier. IT had only taken a few hours to get the commando to scream, and now Jack could hardly get him to stop! Jack, in a way, controlled Axton now. If Jack asked for him to jump, the commando probably would. 

“Handsome Jack sir” Vicky’s voice came through his echo-com. 

“Yes, yes, what is it?” Jack asked. 

“Someone is attempting to contact you through Sanctuary.” 

“Drop it. I don’t want to listen to those child- murdering bandits right now. If they call again, decline it. There is nothing I want to hear from them; they can wait on me.” Jack said. 

“Yes sir.” she said and disconnected from the echo com. Jack didn’t give it another thought as he loaded up the turret, and began firing again.   
*******************************************************************************************

 

“What do you mean you tried to contact Handsome Jack?” Lilith was furious. Angel was turning bright red. Gaige just crossed her arms and met gaze for gaze. 

“After all we did to stop Handsome Jack. All we did to save you, and now you just want to give yourself back to him? Unbelievable!” 

“She wasn’t giving herself to him, she was just going to let him know she was still alive and ask a few favors from him.” Gaige said, “Besides, it didn’t work.” 

“That’s a stupid plan!” Lilith said, “First of all, we don’t even know if Axton is still alive, so we’d might be showing our hand for nothing. And do you really think Jack would just let us keep Angel if he knew he was alive?

“While I appreciate your initiative and care for your teammate, but Lilith’s right, that was… poorly thought out.” Roland said. 

“It wasn’t just poorly thought out; it was ibicilic? How could you be so stupid? How could you put everything we’ve worked for at risk?” Lilith yelled. 

Angel was trembling. Her large blue eyes were filling up with tears. She wraped her arms around herself and bowed her head low. 

“I’m sorry daddy, I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me, I’m sorry!” she sobbed. The room fell silent. Angel curled in on herself. 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! Forgive me daddy, I’ll do what you say!” Her tatoos started glowing fiercely and a faint light formed around her, the eridium in her arm thinning quickly. Angel was about to unleash her power. 

Gaige lunged away and threw up her arm. Roland lunged under a table. Lilith- Lilith dove for Angel and activated her own power. Gold and white wings mixed and the two girls disappeared with a loud explosion. Angel and Lilith had dissappeared, and in their place was a smouldering cater ringed with purple embers with a hole in it’s center. 

“What the hell was that?” Tannis demanded through the hole. 

“I’m not sure. Why don’t you go figure that out?” Roland said, getting up from under the table. Tannis huffed, but went quietly to work. 

“Are, uh, they okay?” Gaige asked. 

“I hope so.”   
***********************************************************************************************************

The world was golden and white, sparking purple with eridian power. Angel trembled. Last time she had gone to this world, she had melted her mother’s face off. 

“Shhhh, it’s okay.” Angel felt arms wrap tight around her. 

“Mom?” Angel asked, looking at the figure who held her. It was her mom! The long black hair, the gentle smile, the bright blue eyes. A beauty that could capture the heart of Handsome Jack himself.

“It’s going to be okay.” her mom said. Suddenly her mother’s features faded away and Lilith was there. 

“It’s going to be okay.” Lilith said, “You can control your siren powers. We’re in a phase shift right now, do you think you can bring us back?” 

“I don’t know how!” Angel said. She was suddenly feeling very weak. 

“You need to get us back soon, or your eridium will dwindle to nothing, and you will die in a phase shift.” 

“Can’t you do it?” Angel asked. 

“I’m using all of my power to make sure you don’t blow something up too bad. Just- just imagine you’re flying right now. What would you do to land? Close your eyes and land back on your feet, I’m right here with you.” 

Angel closed her eyes and imagined herself sinking down, her wings catching the drift and slowing her fall. She felt her feet on solid ground and put her wings away. 

“Open your eyes, tiger, and look what you did.” Lilith said. Angel looked and saw that she was back in sanctuary, albeit she was now in the middle of the street rather than inside the Crimson Raiders headquarters. The ground around her was smouldering a little, but other than that nothing was incredibly damaged. 

“There you are. Nice phase walk, kid.” Lilith said. Angel nodded, she felt winded and couldn’t catch her breath. Her knees bucked from underneath her and her vision went haizy. Lilith pulled out Eridium from her pocket and hooked it up to her pouch. 

“Thanks.” Angel said. 

“No problem, but you need practice on your power kid. You could have killed someone if I wasn’t there to help you.” 

“I didn’t mean to.” Angel said. 

“Don’t worry about it, kid, but I have to ask, have you ever used your powers before?” 

“Once.” Angel said, “That’s how I killed my own mother.” 

“Oh.” 

“Then Jack gave me a collar and redirected my power however he needed me to. I was never able to use it again.” 

“That’s horrible. I can’t believe Jack would do that to you.” Lilith said. 

“Maybe it was for the best. I don’t want to hurt anyone here.” Angel said. 

“Bullcrap. You don’t need a collar, just some practice. I promise, if you had a little more   
practice, you could phase walk in your sleep without singeing a fly.” 

“You really think so?” Angel asked. 

“Sure. Now that we don’t have Handsome Jack’s threat of charging the vault key breathing down our backs, we have months, maybe years before he can awaken the warrior. I can spare some time to train you. Think you’re up for it, Tiger?” 

Angel nodded. 

“Thank you, Lilith, this won’t be forgotten.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jack brutally tortures Axton. Realizing that there's no way out, he tries to convince Jack to kill him by pissing Jack off. Jack stabs him but realizes that's exactly what Axton wants and heals him so that he can continue torturing him at his leisure.
> 
> Back in Sanctuary, Angel wakes up and realizes that the other Vault hunters have saved her, giving her a steady Eridium supply. Gaige takes her on a 'date' and realizes how brutally Angel has been treated by her supposed 'father'. Angel comes up with an idea to save Axton and tries to contact Jack to make a deal with him. Jack refuses to answer the call, not knowing it's from his daughter. 
> 
> Lilith and Roland find out about this plan and are upset, scolding Gaige and Angel. Upon hearing these harsh criticisms, Angel is reminded of her time with Handsome Jack and is mentally transported there, causing her to panic and activate her siren powers. Lilith protects Angel and helps her through her Phase Walk while also defending the other vault hunters. Angel is hopeful that one day she can learn how to control her siren powers without JAcks help, and Lilith agrees to train her.


	5. A Rebellion Hard Earned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel decides to become a vault hunter and gets the gear to prove it. Handsome Jack agrees to negotiate with the Vault Hunters for the return of Axton

“There you go, sugar.” Moxxi smiled. She brought Angel to look at herself in Moxxi’s personal standing mirror

“Wow... I look like a...badass.” she exclaimed. 

“You could be a real vault hunter.” Moxxi grinned. 

Angel stared at herself. Her hair was still in a side ponytail, but her bangs had been brushed away and a streak of white had been added. Her makeup had been cleaned up, removing her tear streaks from her heavy eyeliner and making her look… happy, in a way.

Angel still had her old outfit on, but added to that were a pair of calf-high combat boots, a jacket, fingerless gloves, and several belts to hold weapons and shields. 

The jacket was a work of art. It had been one of Moxxi’s old jackets (Angel didn’t want to know where it came from) In a beautiful aviator style. It was lined with bullymong fur and came down to her mid arms. The sleeves were big enough to hid her eridium pack, and the collar ruffled against her neck. 

The best part, however, was on the back. Two white angel wings were hand stitched on the back, almost mimicking Angel’s own.

“Are you sure you want to give this to me?” Angel asked. 

“Honey, it’s been years since I could fit in that jacket. Besides, I’m glad to give it to a new vault hunter.” 

“Thank you Moxxi. I don’t know how I can repay you.” Angel said. 

“Just kick ass, okay? And if I happen to have a job, be sure to take it,” Moxxi said with a wink. Then she turned to Gaige, “Be sure to take care of this girl, okay?” 

“Sure thing, Moxxi. Thank you for doing this.” Gaige said.  
“Of course, darlin’. I understand how changing a little thing about an appearance can do a whole lot of good. I remember when I left my second husband, I dyed my hair redder than a bandit in a skag pit. Best kind of therapy there is.” Moxxi said, stroking Angel’s hair. Angel turned to Gaige, grinned, and gave her a thumbs up

It had been Gaige’s idea to go to Moxxi in the first place after she found Angel crying again. 

“Are you okay?” she had asked. Angel shook her head. 

“Every time I look at myself, I see Jack in every inch of my life. He chose my jumpsuit, he chose my hairstyle. I can’t wash him out. I look at who I am, and all I see is him.” Angel said, “I just want to scratch my skin off to try to get away.” 

Gaige had thought for a moment, and then dragged Angel to Moxxi’s, placing down a big tip, and requested a favor which Moxxi had been more than happy to fulfill. Moxxi had dug through her old costume closet and pulled out what she needed. Now the only tears in Angel’s eyes were those of happiness. 

“Thank you, Moxxi.” Angel breathed.

“My best friend is a badass!” Gaige grinned, “And now for the final part.” She pulled out a blue-ranked Jakob’s sniper rifle and handed it to her friend. Angel held the gun in her hands reverently, turning it over carefully. It was a thing of beauty and of danger. Jack never let her go near a weapon, much less hold it in her hands. 

“This… this is more than I could have ever dreamed of,” she said softly, “I was grateful for my life after the Bunker, and I would have been satisfied with just that, but now I can become something more?” She shook her head in amazement. 

Roland popped up on their echocom. 

“Are you ready to go? We still have to get the Vault Key from Handsome Jack.” he said. Angel nodded. Only a few hours earlier, she worked with the Crimson Raiders to devise a plan to stop Jack once and for all. 

Angel still had many of the override codes in her memory, as well as the robotic inserts Jack had gouged into her head, not to mention her siren powers. While it was similar to phase walking, it allowed Angel to phase through code and electricity. And, as they discovered the other day with her little outburst, without Jack controlling the power through Angel’s collar, the results of the untrained ability led to a digistruct explosion and electric shock. Thankfully, Lilith’s ability was similar enough to help her train through it. While not perfect, Angel had a great deal more control. 

The plan was to get to a Hyperion info station, hack Angel into it without tripping any alarms, and direct the info feed to Sanctuary’s base. Roland gave Angel some time to prepare, and Angel, overwhelmed, broke down at the idea of standing up against her father. Thus Gaige took her to Moxxi’s for a makeover, and now here she was, ready to take on Hyperion. 

“Let’s get going.” she said.   
****************************************************************************************

Vault Hunting was hard. Angel had only been doing it for five minutes, and already she was sweating in the Pandoran sun and huffing at the physical exertion. Being trapped in a cage didn’t really give her the ability to work on Cardio. Not to mention, the lack of a mass supply of Eridium was still draining her body. 

Salvador paused as Angel, once more, was falling behind. 

“Are you okay, chicka?” He asked. SHe nodded, breathing in heavily. 

“I guess I’m not as fit as I thought I would be.” she wheezed, “I’ll be fine.” Salvador, however, was not convinced. He scooped up Angel and put her on his shoulders. 

“You are much lighter than Axton.” he said. 

“Thank you?” Angel said. He handed her a Maliwan SMG from his gear. 

“Here, you fire while I carry you.” he said. She nodded and Salvador charged into the skag den where the rest of the Vault Hunters were fighting. Angel was hesitant at first, but Salvador pointed and shouted instructions at her, telling her the right time to fire. She pulled the trigger and felt the smooth burst of fire come out, shooting up a small skag. 

“Gran Trabajo!” he said, “Good job!” 

Angel felt lightheaded as she watched the skag die. She had just killed something. With a gun. She was overwhelmed with feelings of adrenaline, pride, and disgust all at once. 

“Woah.” she said. 

“I know.” Salvador grinned, hurrying to catch up with the rest of the Vault hunters at the first Hyperion Blockade. Salvador bent down, and Angel slid off of his back. 

“You’ll want to stay back for this.” he said, and charged into the battle along with Krieg, Gaige, and Maya. 

Angel was unsure of what to do, until she realized that Zero was beside her, crouching down with his sniper rifle. Angel pulled out her own and tried to copy him. 

She looked down the sight and tried to find a target. She zoomed in on a hyperion loader and tried to fire. Nothing happened. She began fumbling with the sides hoping to figure out some secret. 

“You must release/ the safety mechanism/ if you wish to fire” Zero said, pointing to a latch on the right side. Angel nodded appreciatively and unhooked it. She tried again to zoom in and fire, only to miss horribly when she squeezed the trigger. She was about to try again when Zero’s hands came over own, moving them into a new possition.

“Take a deep breath/ squeeze the trigger slowly/ feel the kill inside.” 

Angel wasn’t sure about the last part, but taking a deep breath helped calm her shaking nerves, and she shot a bit better. She still missed, but she was much closer. 

“Try again.” Zero said. Angel took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger slowly. This time she hit the side of the Loader Bot. While not dead-center, she was pleased. She looked up at Zero and grinned. His helmet flashed. 

“:D” 

Zero returned to his sniper and the two of them assisted the others until the base was clear. 

There was a ladder leading up to the main entrance. Salvador went first, followed by Gaige and Krieg. Angel was about to go next when Maya stopped her. 

“Your eridium is getting low.” she said. Angel looked down and was surprised to see how far the brick had dwindled. 

“I hadn’t realized…” Angel said. 

“I bet you also didn’t realize that you got grazed a couple of times.” Maya said. Angel looked down at her other arm and realized it was dripping with blood. She hadn’t even felt anything. When had that happened? Maya offered her a healing hypo and she took it graciously, plunging it into her arm while Maya refitted Angel’s arm pump with a new brick of Eridium. Maya tousled Angel’s hair when she had finished, and followed the others up the ladder. 

“So… What are we looking for?” Gaige asked, looking around the compound. 

“Some sort of port.” Angel said. The Vault hunters scattered, searching for the device among the computers and electronics. However, Krieg hung back with Angel. She looked up at the psycho, thinking she heard him say something.

“What was that?” she asked. Krieg looked down at her. 

“The blood of the innocent is fuel for the fire.” he said, raising his buzz axe. She shook her head. She thought she heard something else… 

“I found something!” Gaige cried, holding up the port. 

“Good, just plug it into the main computer over there.” Angel said. Gaige hooked it up and Angel went to it. She wasn’t confident in her phase shift ability yet, so she opted to do it manually. As soon as she touched the keyboard a red warning sign flashed on the screen. 

“Please Authorize user data.” it said. Angel thought back on the codes and tried to plug them in, but her hands were shaking so badly that she pressed the wrong key. Alarms began going off and loaders began digistructing at their stations. 

“I can fix this!” she said. She went back to the authorization screen and retyped the code. The alarm turned off, and she had access to the code. She had just begun to send data through when the alarm turned on again. 

“System locking down.” 

Steel doors slammed shut around them. 

“What just happened?” Maya asked. 

“I don’t know. My codes should still be valid.” Angel said. The alarm’s beeping stopped, this time being replaced with a low voice. 

“You thought it would be funny to use my Angel’s codes, didn’t you?” Handsome Jack laughed, “Well, congratulations on pissing me off.” 

All of the monitors flicked on with his face. Angel stared up at her father’s face.

“You thought I wouldn’t…” Jack’s face looked down, his face changing from anger, to confusion, then to realization. 

“A-Angel? Angel, Baby, is that you?” Jack demanded. Angel swallowed hard. Her Whole body was shaking. 

“ANGEL?” Jack said, “Answer me, Pumpkin!” Angel’s mouth was dry. 

“We need to get out of here.” Maya said, “Salvador, shoot down the metal hinges with a corrosive weapon, then I want Krieg to beat them down.” 

Angel’s heart was beating hard in her chest. She was going to do something very stupid. 

“I’m here, dad.” she said. 

“What are you doing, baby? Why are you trying to break into hyperion? What are those savages making you do?” 

“They’re not making me do anything.” Angel said. 

“Angel, maybe you shouldn’t be talking to him!” Maya said. Angel ignored her. 

“Jack, is Axton there? And is he alive?” she said. 

“The soldier boy? Why do you care?” Jack sneared. 

“Just answer the question… damnit.” Angel said, her voice quivering. Jack’s eyebrows raised up. 

“Yeah, he’s alive, and he isn’t a Jack clone, if that’s what you were wondering.” Jack said.

“Return him to sanctuary.” Angel said. 

“Oh?” Jack’s mouth curled into a smile. He leaned back and grabbed something off screen, bringing it to the forefront. He slammed Axton’s face down into the camera.   
Axton looked well enough. His lip was swollen and his nose was bleeding. There were a few bruises around his neck. Beyond that, there were no signs of the brutal torture he had faced the past few days at the hands of Jack. But… But his eyes told a different story. They were glassy and distant. The spark inside of them were gone. It was… hard to see.

“Are you sure you they want this back?” Jack asked. 

“Give him back.” she said. Jack laughed.

“What? Are you giving me orders now?” he said, “I’d love to, except that’s not how it works. I want something in return, you hear?” 

“You’re not getting her back.” Maya said. 

“Oh, are the bandits making threats now?” Jack said. Angel slammed her fist on the keyboard, rage boiling inside her.

“They’re not, but I will. Return Axton, or else.” Angel said. 

“You’re trying to threaten me? Whose side are you on?” 

“Any side against you, asshole,” she snarled. 

“Language!” Jack scolded, “What brought this on, baby? Didn’t I give you anything you ever wanted?” 

“Trust me, you don’t want to get into that.” Angel said, “Now give back Axton, Stop this business with the vault, and leave Pandora.” 

Jack looked coldly at his daughter for a moment, contemplating his options. The he laughed. 

“Alright, alright. Negotiation time. You guys want your little toy soldier back, and you want me to not charge the vault key, or even have it. You want me to leave Pandora and stop blowing up its bloodthirsty population, isn’t that right?” Jack asked. 

“Yes.” Angel said. 

“And I want every last stinking bandit dead, a charged vault key, and I want you back at my side where you belong.”

“We told you we’re not giving you Angel.” Maya said, “Or any other siren for that matter.” 

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll think about this little conversation and see what I want to trade in exchange for your little commando that will make both of us happy, alright sweet cheeks? The Vault key and Pandora are both off of the table. As for you, young lady.” Jack turned to Angel, “You will come home, I swear to you I will have you back one way or another. I’m not sure what made you decide to go into this little ‘rebellious phase’, but it will end.” 

“Not likely.” Angel said. Jack just laughed. 

“We’ll keep in touch.” he said, and then the monitors winked off, and the lockdown ended. Angel promptly threw up. 

“C’mon, kid, let’s get going.” Maya said, patting her on the back, “We need to tell Roland about what happened.” 

Angel nodded, straightened up, and followed the Vault Hunters back to Sanctuary. 

*********************************************************************************************************

Jack straighened in his chair, a cold grin curling at the edges of his mouth. He began laughing. 

“Aw, man, are we going to give them what they asked for!” he said to Axton, running his finger’s through the Commando’s hair. He echoed his secretary. 

“Hey, prep the surgery room. I want them ready in the hour. I’ll send them them the instructions for what I want directly. We’re going to take our little soldier here for a test drive.” 

“Yes sir.” 

Jack kicked up his shoes on his desk and put his hands behind his back. So Angel wanted to play Bandit? Well, Jack was going to play just as dirty. This is where the real fun begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a light-hearted chapter this time around! I wanted each of the vault hunters to get some special time with their new recruit, and I enjoyed exploring the different relationships with each of them. I'm in the middle of midterms right now, so updates are going to be a bit slow, but I promise, great things are coming and it should be worth the wait!


	6. A Moment of Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Handsome Jack and the Vault Hunters negotiate for the release of Axton.  
> Axton is acting strange when he arrives, and he and Gaige talk about his experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another lighter chapter, because I adore a good bit of fluff.   
> If you enjoyed this, please feel free to leave a comment, as they keep me going,   
> Or message me on Tumblr at lastoftheorder

It had been three days since Jack told them he would ‘be in touch’. In that time, the Vault Hunters tried once more to hack into Hyperion systems, only this time Angel’s override codes were no longer valid. She had to hack through it the old fashioned way, and only got small portion of Hyperion’s information network running through Sanctuary. At least it was something. 

Jack still hadn’t contacted them, and the Crimson Raiders were growing anxious. 

“I don’t like this.” Lilith said, “Every moment is another one he has to scheme. This is probably all a trap.” 

“It’s undoubtedly a trap.” Roland said, “but at least we’re aware it’s one.” 

“That doesn’t help if we still don’t know what he’s planning.” Mordecai said. 

“And poor Angel, stuck in the middle of all of this.” Lilith said, “I’m surprised there’s only been two kidnapping attempts for her.” 

“She’s learning quickly, though.” Brick said, “Give her a week or so and I’m going to make her a slab.” 

“She is giving Hell to a lot of Bandits, isn’t she? And some Hyperion outposts, to boot.” Lilith said, “And in only three days. That girl was born to be a vault hunter and a badass.” 

***********************************************************************************************

“How does this friendship bracelet look?” Angel asked, holding up her chords and beads to show Gaige. Her friend grinned. 

“Like an absolute disaster. I love it.” she said, “Are you ready to trade?” 

“Hold on, I want to put some finishing touches-.” Angel thew on a pinch of purple glitter over a wooden heart. It stuck to the glue pattern, revealing a tiny skull.

“There, finished.” Angel admired her handywork, “Just give it a sec to dry, okay?” The two girls exchanged bracelets. The one Gaige made for Angel had a little metal wings and a bird feather wrapped in a black skag leather chord. Angel’s bracelet for Gaige had metal knuts, purple yarn, a couple of plastic beads, and the aforementioned wooden heart. It was chunky and horrific, yet Gaige was ecstatic. 

“Mom kept buying me these kits to make friendship bracelets with, growing up,” Gaige said, “I never really had any friends to make them with, though. I was always too nerdy. Thanks for agreeing to do this. Man, I feel like a five year old. I love it!” 

“I made one for deathtrap, too.” Angel said, holding up a simple leather cord with a knut hanging off of it. Gaige laughed. 

“Perfect! He’s going to love it. Can’t forget my one true bff, right?” Gaige stuffed this one into her pocket, “Now, you ready to track down that asshole that smuggled a laser weapon past Marcus?” 

Angel grinned and nodded, and the two girls ran to the fast travel station. They returned late that evening, splattered with blood and wielding two new weapons. Lilith came to meet them

“Angel, we need you. Jack just called. He says he won’t talk to us unless you’re there.” she said. Angel stood up sharply and wiped her mouth off on her sleeve. Lilith glanced at Gaige,”We need you too, kiddo.” 

Both girls followed Lilith to the Crimson Raiders headquarters. Handsome Jack’s face filled the main screen. 

“There’s my baby girl!” he said, “Now we can get started!” 

Roland offered Angel a seat and she sat down, staring right at her father. Jack wrinkled his nose. 

“Wha- Is that blood?” he demanded. Angel looked down and realized she had forgotten to clean it off at the quick change station. She looked up at her father and set her jaw. 

“Yes.” she said. Jack raised an eyebrow. 

“Care to elaborate?” 

“No.” 

“Well, if that’s how negotiations are going to go, I don’t know why I am wasting my time here!” Jack huffed. 

“I assure you, all communications regarding negotiations will be civil and forthcoming.” Roland said. 

“Wow, big words there. Sure your bandit brain didn’t just pop a brain vessel their?” Jack snorted. 

“Are we going to get to negotiations or what?” Lilith asked. Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“I’ll make this simple for you bandits” Jack said, “You want your soldier back, and I figured out what I want in exchange for him. I want the blueprints for your littlest Raider’s Deathtrap unit. No tricks, no hidden bombs. You trade that and the commando’s all yours. And, I want to see my daughter at the tradeoff. We’ll meet at that old negotiation site for Dahl and Atlas near the Tundra Express. That way neither of us can blow up the other. Do we have a deal?” 

The room turned to Gaige. 

“Yes. You can’t get my model, but you can have the blueprints,” she said. 

“Then I will see you idiots tomorrow at noon.” And with that jack signed off. 

“Well, that was fishy as hell.” Lilith said, breaking the silence.   
“That’s why I want the Crimson Raiders going over every inch of the negotiation site tonight. And I want you to stay behind for the negotiation.” Roland said. 

“What? Why?”

“I don’t trust Jack, and I don’t want him anywhere near Pandora’s most powerful siren in case he tries something. I’d prefer to leave Angel behind, but Jack’s not giving us a choice in that matter.” 

Lilith reluctantly agreed. With that out of the way, Roland began barking orders over his echo to all Crimson Raiders, and Brick began sending orders to his Slabs. The night errupted in activity, with troops running around. 

“C’mon back to my place. You’re not going to be able to sleep here.” Gaige told Angel. 

“I feel like I should be doing something,” she admitted. 

“You are, tomorrow.” Gaige said, “You’re going to be useless if you’re half asleep. You can sleep on my cot, and I’m going to be working on getting those blueprints ready.” 

Angel reluctantly agreed. She was worried that her anxiety and fears towards the situation were going to keep her up all night. However, when she laid down she drifted into a dreamless sleep.   
*******************************************************************************************

The Dahl and Atlas negotiation area was one built back when Pandora was ruled by those two corporate superpowers, both of them vying for the resources the planet had to offer. That was, until Athena single handedly wiped out Atlas’s presence and Hyperion discovered Eridium. After that, Dahl abandoned the area and Hyperion took over, however, the negotiation area remained. 

It was a simple compound with two distinct entrances and exits, made for the two corporations to enter and exit without having to bump shoulders with a competitor in case it went out of hand. There were several rooms and hallways leading to the main negotiation area, reinforced with concrete and steel to prevent any mortar strike from interrupting a heated negotiation. Most notably, however, was the shield screen surrounding the entrances on either side which would prevent any weapon from going through. It was trained to recognize guns, grenades, bombs, bullets, knives, buzz axes, nova/ raid shields, and any other object that could constitute a significant threat due to size or material. It was a remarkable act of engineering and programming, one that often went neglected in favor of Pandora’s prefered method of negotiations; extreme and brutal violence. However, in this case, it was perfect. 

The Crimson raiders had spent the night ensuring that the the shields were up and active, as well as finding the strongest offensive position in case things went south with Hyperion. That morning the Vault Hunters scattered around the area, filling the spaces between the inside and the outside of the compound. They were flanked by several standard Crimson Raiders for each Vault hunter, ready to throw up shields. 

“Oh, Come on!” Gaige shrieked in frustration. The shield wasn’t letting her through on accounts of her arm. Oddly enough, it wasn’t registering the Digistruct Robot nestled inside. It was alerted to the fact that she could beat someone with it. 

“I appreciate you wanting to be here for me. Looks like this compound has other plans.” Angel said. 

“I’m not going to leave my friend to face her skag-screwing father without some back up!” Gaige said, fully preparing to unhook her arm. 

“That’s okay, just knowing you’re there beyond the room is enough.” Angel said.

“She’s right, soldier, if we needed you and you couldn’t get your arm hooked in time, it would cost precious seconds. Keep your echo com handy, and you can be in the room prior to this one.” Roland said, “besides, I will be with her the entire time.” 

Gaige crossed her arms.

“Fine, but I’m not happy about it.” 

“We’re all making sacrifices today, Gaige.” Roland said. He and Angel entered through the shield’s barrier, leaving Gaige behind. 

Noon was minutes away, and the first of the Hyperion groups filed in. Loader bots and Soldiers covered hyperion’s side of the negotiations area, but no one fired. Both sides were at a stalemate but ready to fight if anything broke out. 

“I have visual.” Mordecai echoed in. He had found a tower a distance away and was zoomed in, ready to snipe. 

“Thank you.” Roland said. He and Angel waited at the negotiations table. 

The door on the other side slid open, and Handsome Jack came through. 

“Hey there, kiddos.” he said. Nisha followed him, pulling Axton on an electronic chain and collar. They sat down, Jack throwing his feet up on the Negotiation table. 

“You changed your look.” he told Angel. A hand flew up to her white streak, but she otherwise said nothing. 

Roland pulled out the flash drive containing the blueprints. He slid it over. Nisha grabbed it, then deactivated the chain and the collar on Axton, then she dropped the bag of his gear she had slung over her shoulder. 

“Get over there.” she snarled at him, and the Commando fled to the other side. Roland quickly held up a scanner borrowed from Zed to test if there were any bombs hidden in Axton. There weren’t. 

“Are we done here?” Roland asked. 

“Hold up, I need to test these blueprints.” Nish said, plugging the device into her echo. While she tapped away, Jack stared at Angel. 

“Are you happy?” he asked. Angel was taken aback. 

“I’m not sure what you mean,” She said. 

“With these bandits. Are you happy with them?” He asked. She looked to Roland for answers, but he offered none. 

“I-” Angel said. She tugged on her friendship bracelet, “I have friends.” 

“Are you happy?” 

She hesitated. She wasn’t sure she really understood ‘happy’, not since her mother died and Jack forced her to do his bidding. But… but she remembered laughing with Gaige, seeing the sunset, making friendship bracelets. She remembered Lilith helping her control her powers and wasn’t scared of her. She remembered the amazement and giddiness in the change of outfits. She remembered Salvador carrying her in excitement at her first kill. 

If that wasn’t happiness, she didn’t know what would be. 

“Yes.” she said. Jack leaned back and tugged Nisha close. She leaned in, and he whispered something in her ear. She nodded and left the room. 

“Everything seems to be in order here.” Jack stood up, “I just gave my right hand woman the go ahead to tell Hyperion to start leaving. Now, I’m going to tell you how the next few days are going to go. Hyperion is going to stop attacking Sanctuary for as long as my daughter is under its protection. Take that as you will.” He headed towards the shield wall, and hesitated.

“Angel? I hope you can forgive me one day.” he said, and left. Roland and Angel just stared at each other, unsure of what to make of the exchange. 

“Roland, Hyperion is leaving.” Mordecai echoed in, “No casualties. Nothing. Just like that, they’re gone.” 

“We did it.” Roland said, “Mordecai, tell the Crimson Raiders to get out of here. I don’t want Hyperion thinking they can send us mortar strike while we’re vulnerable.” 

“Score one for the Crimson Raiders!” Brick said.

Roland glanced to Axton. The man was quiet, his broken eyes staring fixed at his feet. Roland wasn’t certain he would call this a victory, but at least it was something. 

******************************************************************************************************  
Axton was in bad shape. A quick Scan from Dr. Zed’s x-ray showed that his body was ‘healthy’, in the loosest of terms. However, scans showed signs of an ‘excessive amount’ of healing hypos being used, and the body responding as if it had just been though severe trauma (Of course, these results were all discovered under Tannis’ watchful eye). 

And that was just the physical side. Axton fared far worse mentally. He closed in on himself, barely speaking to anyone. He wouldn’t eat. He wouldn’t drink. When they tried to offer him is Sabre turret, he leapt away as if it were venomous. This wasn’t the ally they had left behind. Regardless, they were grateful to have saved him. 

Gaige was heartbroken. 

Before Angel, she had Axton. While he was much older than she, they shared a lot in common. Their abilities worked well in tandem, and if they were on a team together, it felt like they were unstoppable. She knew of no other Vault hunter who could eat more of Sal’s Truxican Rakk wings, or anyone who could play the piano as well and sing along with it. 

He wasn’t himself. He wasn’t Axton anymore. Yet, Gaige couldn’t help but hope he was still inside somewhere.

She went to visit him the next evening. He was sitting on his cot. He hadn’t changed clothes since he got there, and just sat there, curled up and staring at the wall. Gaige carefully slipped in beside him, putting her arms around his broad shoulders. She rested her head against him and waited there, wordlessly. 

“Gaige?” Axton asked in a shaky voice after several minutes of them staying like this. 

“Yeah?” she asked. He lifted up his head and she saw his tortured eyes, but she didn’t look away. She just smiled at him. Soon his body was racked with deep, hard sobs. Gaige nuzzled up closer and they both soon fell asleep.

Healing was a slow process for Axton. He could barely look at a gun without recoiling away. Gaige spent her time divided between him and Angel. Sometimes she would tell him stories about what she and Angel had done the day before. Sometimes she would hold him and hum. Sometimes she would bring Deathtrap in and start adding modifications to ‘outshow hyperion’. 

When Gaige wasn’t there, Maya or Salvador spent time with him. Maya would read books silently besides him and would occasionally share a passage out loud. Salvador told stories about his childhood and polished his guns. 

After about a week, Axton began speaking to them again and could be persuaded to leave his quarters, although he refused to leave sanctuary. 

“I just can’t face the guns again.” he told his friends when they offered. He wouldn’t tell them what Handsome Jack did to him, but his reaction to guns and his own Sabre turret were enough for them to not press the issue further.

Thankfully, the Vault Hunters weren’t needed as much anymore, since Handsome Jack had stopped his barrage down on Sanctuary. He was still mining, but the threat of the Vault was distant. Tannis estimated it would the Vault key at least 14 years before it would charge without a Siren. Axton was also starting to leave his his apartment and rediscover Sanctuary. 

Gaige and Angel came back that day covered in blood, with more than a few wounds between them. They went straight to Doctor Zed, where Axton happened to be helping out that day in.

“Hey, it’s nice to see you’re leaving your apartment.” Gaige said, however Axton didn’t respond. He ignored her and went straight to Angel. 

“You’re hurt.” he said, “You need healing.” 

Angel looked at the slashes on her arm and shrugged. 

“Yeah, that’s why I came here.” She said, pulling out a couple of bucks and handing them to Zed in exchange for an Anshin vial. Axton kept staring at her until her wounds healed over. 

“Hello, Earth to Axton. Why are you being so weird right now?” Gaige asked, “You’re kinda being creepy.” 

Axton shook his head and looked back at Gaige. 

“She’s a Vault Hunter now?” he asked, “I know she got a gun, but everyone on Pandora’s got one of those. But, seeing her come in like that? I had no idea.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s a Vault Hunter now, and she’s really good at it, too. She doesn’t use her phase shift though. She says she’s too nervous without Lilith their to walk her through it.” 

“Huh.” 

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get some healing myself. A Bandit caught me in the leg.” she said. Axton nodded, and quietly left the room.

The next day he approached them about going on a raid with them. They agreed, and he covered them by sniping from a distance. Angel had been shot in the arm. She hissed and held her arm to stop the bleeding. 

“Angel, catch!” Axton tossed her an Anshin vial. She took it and jabbed it into her arm, closing the wound almost immediately. 

“Axton!” Gaige shouted, “What the Hell?” She grabbed an Anshin vial near her and ran to him. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, eyeing the needle. 

“You’re bleeding out!” she said. Axton looked down and saw that a bullet hole in his torso was seeping blood. 

“I- I don’t want a needle in me,” Axton said. Gaige’s expression softened. 

“I’ll be gentle.” she said. Axton looked away and hissed as he felt the needle enter him. He bit back the screams that threatened to bubble up to the surface. 

“I’m sorry for yelling, I thought you had gone crazy there, giving it to Angel when you needed it.” Gaige said, “I didn’t realize it was…” She pulled the needle out and tossed it to the side. Axton turned back to her and tousled her hair. 

“I hadn’t even realized I’d been hit.” he said. 

“Adrenaline's a bitch, isn’t it?” Gaige said. Axton nodded, although he wasn’t certain that was the case. In truth, he didn’t even want to be out here. But something inside of him filled him with an overwhelming need to watch her and protect her. It scared him a little. 

“Let’s keep going.” he said. 

*************************************************************************************************************  
Gaige and Axton met up late that night, when Sanctuary had gone to sleep and it was filled with a gentle quiet. They sat outside on a bench near the center of town. 

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Gaige asked, “Sal says you’re not sleeping through the night, you keep waking up in a panic.”

“It’s not your job to take care of me, Gaige, in fact, it should be the other way around, young lady.” he said. Gaige snorted. 

“Yeah right.” she said, and her voice grew hushed, “So, what did you dream about?” 

“I dreamt about Jack, and what...what he did to me.” Axton started trembling. 

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have asked.” 

“No, it’s fine. I should talk about it. I mean, it’s not like how he tortured me, either. Instead of his office, I’m in a white room, and there are doctors all around me. Jack’s there, staring at me through a window and I’m frozen, but I can feel everything, kinda like he tried to do to me with being his Jack double, except they don’t want me as a double. They scramble my brain up with needles and wires and say I’m going to be perfect, and that I am a masterpiece, and my head frigging hurts and Jack’s just laughing. I beg them not to put something inside of me and they do and I’m not me anymore. I know it’s just a dream, but I go in to see Zed and Tannis almost every day and ask them to rescan me to make sure it’s not real,” Axton said. 

“Axton, I-I’m sorry I fell.” Gaige blurted out. Axton turned to her. 

“Huh?”

“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been tortured! You died trying to protect me and it’s all my fault and we almost lost you!” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. 

“It’s my job, Gaige, as the handsome soldier boy.” He said, putting his arms around her and kissing the top of her head, “I will always save you.” 

And he meant it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I also have sketches of my Angel design. If you would be interested in seeing them, please let me know!   
> Also, none of my stuff is beta read, so if you notice a glaring issue, let me know!


	7. Enough Rope to Hang Themselves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel grows used to her new life in Sanctuary, and she finds herself growing closer to Axton. Life is good, and it seems, for once, Pandora is in a tentative peace.  
> It's enough rope to hang themselves.

Sanctuary flourished without the constant threat of Handsome Jack. In only a month, much of the garbage had been cleaned away and new levels to buildings were added. Moxxi’s bar featured more traffic, and Zed finally cleaned out his ‘hospital’. Sanctuary could finally keep their borders a bit more open, and they kept contact with the cities of Hollow Point and Overlook to share supplies. They were also finally able to install security systems to announce if the city was in danger.

Angel, too, flourished. She was an excellent Vault hunter, bringing much needed strategy and planning into their excursions. Her teammates became richer and better equipped than they had ever been before. And Angel was becoming more confident in herself, as she was beginning to control her Siren power. True control, not just a metal collar. She also found her need for Eridium diminishing as well. 

Today, Angel was working on a job for Sir Hammerlock to hunt down a mutated skag with two heads. It was her first solo mission, and she was ready. She waited on the rocky ledge outside of the skag den and played music on her echo. It was Gaige’s soundmix, and while it sounded harsh to Angel’s ears, she enjoyed listening to anything her father would disapprove of. 

There! She saw the skag, its two heads roaring in the sky. She squeezed the trigger, knowing her bullet would hit its mark. The Skag went down.

“The specimen has been tranquilized.” she messaged Hammerlock

“Capital job, just protect it and I shall send transport over directly. And would you mind protecting it till transport gets there?” 

“How long will that be?” she asked. 

“With your location, shouldn’t be more than a few hours.” 

“A few hours?” Angel was going to be so bored. 

“Don’t worry, your reward will be more than satisfactory,” 

“It had better be.” she sighed. She didn’t even have Gaige to talk to, her friend was on a stealth mission with Zero to break into a hyperion compound.

Angel sighed and flipped through her echo contacts seeing if there was anyone she could message, or have join her. She lingered on Axton’s contact, and decided to call the commando. 

“Heya darlin!” The commando had healed a lot since his time back in Sanctuary. He greeted her with a large smile, “What do you need?” 

“I’m stuck on a mission, guarding a knocked out skag till transport gets here.” she said, “I need a distraction.”

“What, the classic Pandoran views aren’t interesting enough.” 

“Oh, yeah, I love the rocks, and the sand, and more rocks.” She sighed. 

“So you called me for something better to look at? I’m flattered, cutie, I really am.” He winked over the video feed. Angel blushed a little. 

“How are you doing in Sanctuary?” Angel asked. 

“A lot of the same. We’re getting supplies from Hollow Point today; more food and medicine. I’ve been asked to train some new Crimson Raider recruits along with Roland. This fight against Jack isn’t over, not by a long shot. We may have some breathing room, but it's not going to last forever.”

“No, it isn’t. It's only a matter of time before Jack makes another bid for a Siren, and then he’ll have that Vault Key charged and wipe every last one of us off the face of this planet.”

Axton raised an Eyebrow. Angel lowered her eyes. Jack wouldn’t let her die. She may have been a bandit vault hunter now, but he would never let her die like one. 

“Shit, sorry.” he said. 

“No, you’re right,” She smiled, “We’re going to kill him first.”. 

“You bet your ass we will.” he smiled, “Roland’s been working on some really good ideas. We’ll take him down soon, I swear.” 

“You’re a good man, Axton,” Angel smiled at him. 

“Aw, thank you darlin’. Hey, next time you have another job, take me with you? I could use some action. This month has been all kinds of good to me, and I think I want to go on the field more. Besides, it gives me more time to spend with you.” He gave her a cheeky wink over the echo, and Angel found herself turning pink. 

They talked for another hour while Angel sniped a couple of skags nearby, until finally the transport arrived and she had to call Hammerlock to confirm that this was the right truck. It was, and helped them load up the skag, and they drove her to the nearest fast travel location.   
When she got to sanctuary and turned in her mission, pleased with the large amount of money now in her pocket and her new Jakobs assault rifle. 

Roland came up on her echo.

“Vault Hunters, I need you. It’s time to make a plan.” 

The Vault hunters quickly gathered at the Crimson Raider’s headquarters. Gaige and Zero had just gotten in, looking pretty beaten up but otherwise pleased. Angel drifted to her friend’s side.

“Welcome, Vault Hunters, as you know, we’ve had a brief reprieve from Hyperion’s power, but this peace isn’t going to last for long. We can’t just wait for Jack to make his next move; we have to take the fight to him.” Roland said, “If we can hook up a fast travel station to Helios, we can influtrate it and steal the vault key from Jack. Some of you can work on disabling the weapon’s systems and the Eye of Helios. We get in, get out, and save Pandora for good.” 

The Vault Hunters nodded. While they were filled with trepidation, it was the only way. They couldn’t just wait for Jack’s patience to wear out. 

“It will take several weeks to prepare for it and work out the details, but I want you all to be aware of the plan. I will be giving out missions to assist us in that goal. You are dismissed.”

Angel turned to Gaige.

“What- what if you all get captured again?” she asked. Gaige shrugged.

“We escape again,” she said. Angel looked over at Axton. He stood there rigid, staring at the wall, his expression blank. 

“Oh.” Gaige said, following Angel’s gaze. They went over to Axton.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Angel asked gently, touching his arm. Axton didn’t move. Gaige snapped her fingers at him. 

“Hey, Ax, are you okay?” she asked, she looked up at him, “Hey, what’s wrong with your eyes?” 

Before Gaige could investigate further, Axton shook his head and seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was put in. 

“Sorry, I… I was back on Helios and.” his face twisted up. Gaige jumped up and put her arms around him. He caught her and held her in his arms, grunting at her sudden weight.

“Axton, you’re here and you’re safe!” she said. 

“I get that,” he said.   
“We’re going to take that son of a taint down.” Angel said. Axton nodded.

“Hell yeah we are!” 

**************************************************************************************************

 

That night, Angel was woken up by Axton calling her over echo. She rubbed her sleep filled eyes and answered. 

“Mornin’ darlin’. How are you doing?” he asked. 

“Tired.” she said. She checked her echo timer and saw exactly how late it was; Everyone else in Sanctuary would be blissfully asleep. She shot a look at Axton over the vido feed.

“Sorry about that, m’am, but there’s something I want to show you. I’ll meet you at the fast travel station.” 

“What should I bring?” she asked. 

“Just your cute little self. Oh, and don’t tell Gaige, either. I want this to just be you and me,” he winked. Angel felt a warm rush come through her and she blushed. 

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she hung up and slung on her jacket and pulled on her boots.

Even though it would just be Axton, and she trusted him, she still grabbed a pistol and her shield just in case they ran into trouble. She walked outside and tasted the cool air, and her neck prickled. Something was wrong. She phase-shifted and felt new lines of spiking electricity around Sanctuary. She knew she should investigate once she exited phase-shift, but then Axton called her again. 

“You know, it’s not nice to leave a fella waiting. Are you coming?” He gave her a cheeky wink. 

“Hey, Axton, what did you want to show me?” she asked. He paused for a second.

“I- I’m not sure.” he admitted, his eyebrows knitting in confusion. The digistruct machine flashed, and Angel turned in time to see Nisha step out. She threw a collar around Angel before the siren could react. 

“Axton! Help!” Angel screamed, clawing at the collar. 

“Stand down Cowboy.” Nisha said. Axton stilled, his face twisted in confusion.

“What’s going on?” He demanded. Nisha rolled her eyes. 

“As much as I love seeing your hurt expression, I need you to stop running Axton.exe, switch to Soldier.exe,” she said. Axton trembled and collapsed to the ground, cursing and sputtering, then fell still. He rose, his eyes flashing red. 

“Awaiting orders,” He said in a flat, mechanical tone. 

“What the hell?” Angel screamed, and then kept screaming, hoping to wake someone in Sanctuary up. 

“Shut up, kid!” Nisha ordered. The collar compelled Angel. She shut her mouth, tears filling her eyes. Nisha grabbed Angel by the collar. 

“Listen here, kiddo, you’re going to be a good little girl and sit tight till Daddy can come and pick you up, and no funny business.” Nisha said, she tossed Angel to the bench near the fast travel station. The collar made her stay. 

“Axton, did you manage to take Sanctuary’s shields down?” Nisha asked. Axton nodded. Nisha’s lips curled into a smile and she activated her echo.

“Send down the moonshots, hotstuff.” she said. She turned as she saw Marshall Friedman ran into the fast travel area.

“What’s going on, I heard screaming-” he trailed off when he saw Nisha. She shot him in the head without ceremony.

“Looks like I’m taking your badge, again,” Nisha said, pulling off her own hat and replacing it with Friedman’s. She turned back to Axton. 

“I bet these assholes heard that shot, so I’m needed for a good old fashioned shootout. Your job is to shoot anyone who tries to come in here unless they’re hyperion. Your first priority is keeping Angel safe, your next is making sure no one can escape through the fast travel,” Nisha said. The ground shook and she grinned. The first moonshot full of loaders landed. She threw back her head and let out a yeehaw and ran into the now waking Sanctuary.

****************************************************************************************************

Lilith heard the gunshot, and it woke her up, but she didn’t think much of it. 

“Some idiot must be playing with a pistol again,” she thought, pissed that it disturbed her sleep. She turned in her cot and found the cool side of her pillow and nusseled it. On a cot nearby, Roland was fast asleep, and it made Lilith smile. It had been awhile since they shared sleeping quarters, even if it was from several feet away. Even if they also had to share it with Mordecai and Brick. 

Angel’s old bed was taken by a visiting Vault Hunter named Mamarill, who would come in and out of Sanctuary. Angel had moved out into Gaige’s apartment several weeks ago, and Lilith had to admit that she missed the young Siren. Not that she would let anyone know. Lilith wasn’t the mothering type.

Still, the thought of Angel learning to control her siren powers through Lilith’s careful teaching made the older siren’s heart fill with pride. Angel’s power was different, as she shifted into a world of code rather than a parallel dimension, but Lilith could easily translate her teachings to adapt to Angel’s needs. It was nice. 

Lilith was about to drift back asleep when she heard the unmistakable noise of a moonshot coming from Helios. It sounded awfully close to Sanctuary, but Lilith figured that it was heading for the Highlands. Until the ground shook. 

Lilith bolted upright. 

“Everyone up!” she shouted. Mordecai mumbled something and Brick continued snoring. Roland was up and running for his weapons. Lilith pounded the button to activate Sanctuary’s alarms. 

“People of Sanctuary, we are under attack! Make your way to the fast travel station, now!” Lilith shouted over the intercoms. There were screams from outside, and the ground shook again as another moonshot landed. Lilith looked over the balcony and saw the streets of Sanctuary filling with civilians and loaderbots. 

“Don’t go to Pierce station!” someone shouted. Lilith looked towards the travel station terminal and her heart turned cold. It was blocked by a turret shield; people couldn’t get through. A few people fell down, riddled with bullet holes.

“What the hell?” she asked herself- she knew that shield. She knew that turret. 

“Axton what the hell are you doing?” She shouted at Pierce station, “You’re injuring civilians! Let them through!” She looked through the station’s windows and saw Axton. He held up his assault rifle and fired at her. She only narrowly dodged the shot. 

“Lilith!” Roland called to her. She ran to him as he fired at approaching loaderbots. 

“The fast travel station is a bust- Axton’s turned on us.” She said. 

“Then we need to find another way for people to get out,” Roland said, “Can you phase walk everyone out of here all at once?” 

“Not without taking all the loaderbots with us,” Lilith said. 

“Then take a few at a time, and get them to Overlook; it’s the nearest defended settlement,” Roland said, “And come back for more. The Vault Hunters and I can take care of the loaders.” 

“That’s going to drain me pretty bad, Roland, traveling that distance,” Lilith said. Roland fumbled at his belt pouch and tossed her a chunk of eridium. 

“That’s an order, Soldier, I believe in you,” he said. Lilith flushed at his praise and absorbed the eridium. She would do what she could. 

*************************************************************************************************************

Lilith was growing tired, even with the boost of eridium from earlier, she was losing it. 

“Just save...A few more…” she thought. She tried to ignore the fact that Sanctuary was loosing, that civilians were getting rounded up by loaderbots in places she couldn’t go and save them. 

Salvador ran to her, Gaige in his arms, kicking and screaming.

“LET ME SAVE THEM! THIS HAS TO BE A MISTAKE!” Gaige cried out. 

“Lil, you need to take her!” Salvador said, “She was shot...by Axton.” Lilith grimaced and saw the bleeding wound in the girl’s side. Lilith looked around, there weren’t many people still fighting. 

Roland came up on her echo.

“We’re losing this battle, take the Vault Hunters and run!” 

“I’ll take you, too,” Lilith told Salvador, who nodded solemnly, and Lilith phasewalked them to Overlook, nearly collapsing with the draw of power. But she phase walked anyways, back to Sanctuary, this time grabbing Krieg, Mordecai and Brick. Mordecai tried to stop her from growing back.

“It’s bad, Lil, and you’re spent!” he protested. She shook her head. 

“I’ve got to go back; there are still people to save.” She said through gritted teeth. Roland.

Her last thoughts were of him as she passed out there in Overlook.   
*************************************************************************************************

Everyone was either captured or dead in Sanctuary. Everyone was being bound by Loaderbots at gunpoint. Nisha smiled at it all. She hadn’t had this much fun in a while, and she even caught Roland alive! Not to mention another Siren besides Angel, although that one had to be physically restrained. Jack told her the collar didn’t work for the phase-locking siren. But, if the siren couldn’t use her arms, she couldn’t use her power. 

A large ship came in, crushing the munitions shop and gun range as it docked, and a ramp extended with yellow carpet. Nisha rolled her eyes at the vanity of it all and went to greet the figure coming out. Axton followed her obediently, carrying a distraught Angel with him. 

Jack grinned at the picture. Sanctuary’s bandits rounded up and captured, the city in ruins, his daughter had her collar back on. He reached his hands out to the sky.

“Daddy’s home!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!
> 
> Man, writing the early parts of this chapter was a slog, but the siege of Sanctuary was so much fun to write!   
> Feel free to leave a comment or message me on Tumblr. i'm lastoftheorder there.   
> This is unbeta'd, so if there are any glaring plot holes or grammar errors, let me know!


	8. Everything Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has Sanctuary in his possession and ruthlessly kills those who failed to escape. 
> 
> Those who fled from Sanctuary aren't doing much better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a dark chapter and was incredibly hard for me to write. This'll probably be one of the darkest parts. It gets better, though, I promise. 
> 
> Also I'm sorry. 
> 
> Warning for Major character deaths.

“I want a headcount of everyone here with us in Opportunity,” Lilith shouted at the refugees from Sanctuary. “Then I want supplies counted, guns, ammo, food, water, eridium. I want everything documented in detail and plans made. Families will be sent to Hollow Point once everything is accounted for. In the meantime, I need Vault Hunters and Raiders to defend the perimeter, and any spare hand is either helping Zed with the wounded or Karima with reinforcing the shield. Jack may have Sanctuary, but we still have bullets in our guns and blood in our veins. We’re not going to lose what we have left. Now move out!”

There was some murmuring as the crowd shifted, moving to follow Lilith’s instructions. She hated having to be the face of it all, but Roland was still in Sanctuary along with the most of the Crimson Raiders. If they were still alive. 

“Lil, are you okay?” Mordecai asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. She flinched. 

“No, I’m not.” she hissed. Mordecai suddenly pulled her into a fierce hug. He didn’t say a thing, he just held her for a moment. Her rigid demeanor suddenly faltered, and she buried her face into his neck. 

“It’s just like New Haven,” she said, biting back bitter tears. Mordecai didn’t say anything. He just held her for a moment, before finally pulling away. 

*******************************************************************************************************

Jack laughed at the sight. He had all the remaining Sanctuary Residents gathered in the center of town, circling around with his loaderbots and Hyperion personnel keeping everyone in line. He had already sent Maya off to the nearest Hyperion Lab, and now he was ready to take care of the rest of the roaches. Dawn had finally kissed the sky; it lit up the world and chased back shadows. Jack couldn’t help but think this was the perfect time for an execution. 

“Please! Don’t do this!” Angel begged. Jack spared her a withering look

“Don’t you see baby? This is for your own good. You need to get them out of your head. This isn’t your life; this isn’t what you want,” he said, and then, turning to this personal he said, “Bring out Roland.” 

Hyperion soldiers dragged Roland into the center of the crowd, creating a circle. Roland looked roughed up, but otherwise fine. Jack strolled up to Roland, placing his pistol barrel against the soldier’s head.

“You Crimson Raiders have been a thorn in my side for a loooong time. Y’know, I would just torture you to death or something, but I’ve got a make a statement. Doesn’t that suck? Business before pleasure and all that. Well, toodles, kitten.” Jack pulled the trigger and a cry went through the crowd. The loaderbots had to restrain some people from charging in. A couple of more bullets fired and some members of the crowd lay dead. Jack sniffed, reloading his pistol. That wasn’t as satisfying as he had hoped. At least he could look forward to the many, many more executions he had planned. 

********************************************************************************************

Karima approached Lilith hesitantly.

“Ex-excuse me, Lilith,” She said, “I don’t mean to cause a stir, but I’m afraid the families there won’t be able to escape to Hollow Point. 

“What do you mean?” she demanded. Karima held out an echo recorder in her hand; it was a message from the hidden city. The city’s leader appeared on the screen.

“I’m sorry people of Sanctuary, but the risk of taking in refugees that Handsome Jack is actively hunting is too great. We’re pulling all fast travel codes from the system, and we will no longer be able to provide you with aid. Our people are our first priority; I hope you can understand.”

Lilith through the echo. Shit shit shit. She took a deep breath, carefully considering her options. She had to get the families somewhere safe. Overlook was too small to sustain everyone for long, and it was being bombarded with moonshots. The shield was strong, but it wouldn’t hold out forever without additional supplies. 

Lilith was ready to pull out her own hair when Brick ran over to her, another echo in his hand.

“Lilith, you wanted news on Sanctuary,” he said, “They’ve killed Roland, and they’re killing off the rest of the Crimson Raiders. He’s sent us an echo recording of it.” 

Lilith’s heart ceased up. She didn’t know how many more blows she could take. She turned away.

“I don’t want to see it,” She said coldly, then calmly walked over to the town’s edge and screamed as loud as she could to the sky.

*******************************************************************************************

“Alright, who is next?” Jack called to one of his engineers. 

“We have a few more Raiders, and a man named Hammerlock, and-”

“Aurelia’s brother? Good; I want him next. Get that two-headed skag ready; He has no idea I got ahold of it! It’ll be perfect. Didn’t you help him get that one Angel?” Jack looked over his shoulder where his daughter was supposed to be. She was missing, along with Axton. 

Jack grabbed the engineer’s shirt collar.

“Where is she? Where is Angel?”

“She-she said she was going to her room here in Sanctuary,” the engineer said.

“You just let her? She could be doing anything to him, and I don’t want her ripping out his cybernetics!” Jack shot the man, then activated the tracking device on Angel’s collar. He followed it and came to a small apartment building and kicked down the door, stalking inside with his gun raised. He went past the mainroom and into the bedroom. 

There were two cots with colorful blankets. Purple fabric covered the window and gave the room a soft glow. The walls were covered with hand drawn schematics, and a few pictures. Angel was sitting on a cot, Axton watching her closely with his gun out. Angel was sobbing into a piece of paper in her hand. Jack ran to her and grabbed her collar, yanking her towards him. 

“What are you doing? Did I say you could leave the executions?” Jack shouted at her. Angel’s sobs just became louder, “Did I say you could run back here? What’s in your hands?” Jack snatched the paper from her and looked at it. It was a photograph of Angel, the other vault hunters, and the rest of the Crimson Raiders in front of the headquarters. They were all smiling. Most of them would have been dead by now. 

“You’ve killed them,” she said “They’re all gone.” 

Jack ripped the picture.

“And I would do it again” he said, “You need to forget about this life here. Once I’ve taken care of the rest of Sanctuary, you’re coming with me back to Helios.”

Jack turned to Axton and handed him the scraps of the photograph.

“Get a fire weapon and burn it,” he instructed. The commando silently obeyed while Angel lunged to snatch what scraps she could. Jack grabbed her collar and pulled her back. 

“You’re gonna watch, sweetheart, you’re going to watch your picture burn, and then you’re going to come with me and watch the rest of the executions. Won’t that be fun, princess?” 

“I hate you.” Angel watched the ashes of her photograph flutter down from Axton’s hand. Jack patted her head sympathetically and ignored her comment.

“Let’s dye your hair back to black, kitten, I hate that white streak in it. We’ll take care of that after I kill ol’ Hammerlock, hmm?”

“No, no more killing,” she begged, “Let them live,” 

“Sweetheart, last time I let those filthy Vault Hunters life, they escaped.”

“Let them live.”

“Not going to happen, Angel. Now come on, we’ve got more executions to watch.”

************************************************************************************************************

Gaige...Gaige wasn’t doing very well. She pulled herself away from all of her friends and secluded herself. She didn’t help the other Vault Hunters; she just stayed in the small corner of Overlook she carved out for herself and stared at the sky through the cracks in her sheet metal walls. 

She hadn’t pulled out Deathtrap since getting shot. Salvador tried to offer her breakfast after dawn, but she looked on and didn’t reply. She didn’t move. Salvador took extra time to make sure she was still breathing but otherwise left the girl alone. 

While calm on the surface, Gaige was dying on the inside. Her thoughts swam in circles, tugging her deeper into a whirlpool of despair. Everything was hitting too soon, too much.

When she and Zero had infiltrated the Hyperion compound, they had found deathtrap prototypes being created. While Gaige had been able to brush it off then, knowing she had traded it to save her friend and give Sanctuary peace, to have that very same friend betray her was...Crushing.

Not to mention Angel was captured again, and Gaige still didn’t have leads on her parents. She finally broke down into sobs, trying to hide her own face. Hopefully no one would hear her. She was supposed to be a badass, but now all she wanted was to cry. 

************************************************************************************************************

Jack sprawled on the chair he had one of his workers bring him, watching the proceedings like a hawk over prey. A cruel grin curling at the edge of his lips as his eyes danced at the displays of violence before him. For Angel, the whole display was just sickening.

Hammerlock was ripped apart by a two-headed skag that Angel had helped transport only a day before. How Jack had come to possess it, she didn’t know. A fellow Crimson Raider was ripped in half by two loaderbots pulling in different directions. Another one, upon Nisha’s request, was hung via a noose attached to a jet loader. A random Sanctuary citizen was forced to swallow a live grenade. Angel was becoming numb to the gruesome deaths she had watched, and she was certain the dwindling crowd would feel the same if they didn’t know their life was the next on the chopping block. 

“Hey, Jack, love, what are you going to do with the little tykes?” She nodded her head over to the group of children who were huddled and scared. 

“Can’t risk ‘em becoming bandits. I was thinking of bringing in a firing squad? Make it fast and painless as possible; after all, I am a hero,”

“Well, I was thinking, we could use a few extra hands in the mine at Lynchwood. Some of the Eridium veins are too far back in narrow tunnels for the regular squabble to reach. We need some small workers,” she said. Jack waved a hand. 

“Fine, just make it profitable, alright? And I don’t want to hear any trouble coming from it.” 

Nisha nodded and started ordering the loaderbots around with the kids.

“Don’t kill anyone while I’m gone, alright?” Nisha said with a wink, “I’ll be back soon,” 

“Oh, I have a way to pass the time” Jack turned to his daughter, “Hey, kiddo, let’s go the Crimson Raiders headquarters; I’ve got a job for you. Axton, you come too,”

She followed him with Axton in tow. Jack went straight to the central communication board on the second floor of the headquarters. He pointed to the controls and snapped his fingers.

“Hey, baby girl, can you set up a communications feed with Dahl Central Command?” 

While confused by this command, Angel did as she was told (Not that she had a choice). Dahl’s commander’s face filled the screen. 

“Sup, kiddos, how do you guys feel about trades?” 

**********************************************************************

Sarah often looked back at the decisions leading to her telling her now ex-husband to go AWOL, and she still believed it to be the best option she had. The whole debacle with Axton had been a minor setback in her ascent to power, but it didn’t stop her. She was a woman of good reputation, after all, and once she 

Her echo went off, instructing her to come to the Commander’s office. Now. She jogged to the nearest fast-travel system and transported herself into there, moving swiftly inside. She gave a swift salute, which the Commander waved off.

“Sergeant Major Sarah, We have just received news on Axton,” he said. He pressed a button and a recording popped up. Handsome Jack’s face filled the screen along with Axton’s.

“So I have your little renegade right here with me, say ‘Hello’ Axton.” 

The commando said a sharp ‘hello’. 

“Dahl dogs, loyal and obedient, aren’t they? I mean, except for when this one betrayed you guys and went AWOL. Not that he’d give you any trouble now. Gave him a friggin’ chip in his brain and an AI set to take over, and nearly impossible to scan for. Cost me a ton, but I’m certain we can talk about reimbursement as soon as you’ve shot him full of bullets. Or maybe you guys wanna keep him. I dunno, and I don’t care, though if you try to replicate my work I will destroy all of you guys.” Jack said. 

“Is Axton still in there? We’re not about to trade for a corpse with an AI shoved inside,” The Major’s voice came through the recording.

“Don’t you worry, Axton’s still here; not that he can do anything about it unless I disable the AI. Need a demonstration?” Jack bared his teeth. 

“No, thank you, Jack. Give us a few days to arrange the bounty payment and negotiate a trade port. Good day,” 

The Commander signed off and scrubbed his face in his hands. 

“Jack’s getting more powerful,” he said, “There are rumors of a super weapon on Pandora he plans to use, and if anyone has resources to do it, it’s him. Dahl can’t officially move against Hyperion without getting our asses handed to us, but if one of my Sergeants were to go AWOL on account of seeing a lover she still had feelings for, well, we couldn’t do much about that, now could we?”

“I assure you, sir, I bare no lingering affection for my ex-husband,” she said. 

“I’m not saying that you do. But Jack has just executed the leader of the Hyperion Resistants. They need a leader with military tactics, one that can give them hope to stop Jack for us,” he said, “You’ll still be paid, of course, under the table, and provided with weapons and munitions as needed. I’ve also arranged for a few men to go with you. Will you be able to do this for your military, soldier?”

“Of course sir. I will leave on the first available transport tomorrow,” she said. 

Pandora. Vault Hunting. Axton. Sarah didn’t show a trace of emotion as she left the room.

*************************************************************************************************************

“What do you mean it’s not working? She’s a siren, isn’t she?” Jack screamed over his echo, “Just pump more eridium into her; maybe she hasn’t been exposed to it enough!” 

Angel closed her eyes in fear. SHe knew it wouldn’t work for Maya; the blue haired siren wasn’t like her and Lilith. Jack would get fed up soon, and then hook Angel back up to the machine. It scared her. 

He was in a sour mood. Nisha had come back a while ago but promptly left again, saying that she was ‘exploring the city’ and asked that Jack hold off the executions till she got back. Again. Jack didn’t like being told what to do, but he also wanted to keep Nisha happy with him.

Angel was grateful for the break. She wasn’t sure how many brutal murders she could watch. She had seen fifteen that day, not counting the ones that happened when she slipped out. There were about 37 Sanctuary citizens left alive in the city, and Angel knew she was going to watch all of them die. 

“Goddam friggin’ idiots,” Jack said, turning off his echo.

“You angry, baby?” Nisha’s voice purred behind him. Jack turned.

“Yeah, these Jackasses don’t know what they’re doing. I give them a siren and eridium, and the can’t make the two work together,” he said. Nisha wrapped her arms around her. 

“You ready for a bit more fun tonight,” she asked. 

“Hell yeah,” he said. 

“Then do I have some good news for you. While I was gone, I checked out that seedy little bar here, drank some whisky, and found a hidden door. Turns out Sanctuary was holding out on us after all; they had a bunker below the city. Just rounded them up for ya, including a very familiar face.”

“Oh yeah?” Nisha nodded, and barked back to the Hyperion men.

“Bring out the friggin’ whore!” she said. Angel’s hand flew to her mouth and Jack’s grin widened as Moxxi was being carried along by a Hyperion guard. She was remarkably calm; accepting her fate. They brought her before Jack who grinned. 

“Hello,Mox,” he said. Moxxi spat in his face, but his smile didn’t falter.

“Ooh, you’re going to pay for that,” he said

“NO!” Angel cried, “Please, don’t hurt her! Please, Jack, don’t!” her voice was hoarse. This wasn’t the first time she made this plea, but this was her most desperate. She couldn’t lose Moxxi, not after all the woman had done for her. 

“Angel, sugar, stay out of this,” Moxxi warned. 

“Huh, do you have a soft spot for my little Angel?” Jack asked, wiping away Moxxi’s spittle.

“Someone had to take care of her. Clearly, her father wasn’t up to the task,” Moxxi said. Jack wrapped a hand around her throat and started squeezing. 

“Dad, please!” Angel gave a final, desperate plea, the flood of tears she had been holding back all day finally bursting. Jack just kept squeezing, Moxxi’s face began to ashen and as she kicked and struggled. Angel ran to knock her father away, but Axton’s hands were quickly around her, preventing her from helping.

Moxxi spluttered and clawed, her movements growing weaker as Jack’s grip tightened around her neck. The seconds ticked by in agony as Moxxi’s life faded, until finally her eyes had become glassy and her body became limp. Jack finally let her corpse drop, brushing his hands off on his vest. 

“And that is why you don’t mess with Handsome Jack,” he said. 

Something broke within Angel as Axton released her. Her tears dried up and only a cold determination remained. There was a hole in the center of Sanctuary where the engines opened up. A few drunkards had fallen through during her time in Sanctuary, but they weren’t sirens like her. She walked briskly over to it. 

“Hey, Angel, what are you doing?” Jack asked, “Get away from there!” 

Angel narrowed her eyes, defiantly raising her chin. 

“No,” she said and dropped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND that's over. Things are about to get pretty cool now. 
> 
> I suck at editing, so if you notice any glaring mistake, let me know! 
> 
> Also, I appreciate comments greatly; they're what keep me going in this fic!


	9. On Angel's Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope returns to the survivors of Sanctuary as things fall into place under Angel's guidance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to get out, inspiration is a fickle mistress and finals are a bitch.   
> <3

Angel fell from Sanctuary, her wings unfolding as she fought against the air current and Handsome Jack’s contro.. He was urging her to fly back up, but she continued her plummet down, twisting as their wills opposed to each other. If he kept fighter her, she would die; but she would rather that then return to him. He must have know that! She let out a scream as she the wind whipped around her. 

Suddenly there was a click as her collar deactivated.She tore the thing off and swooped, letting out a happy cry of freedom. Jack had let her go! Her wings unfurled further and she swooped down towards the Pandoran highlands. She caught a glimpse of Overlook and flew down towards it, landing right outside of the town. 

A watchman stared at her, startled by her sudden landing. She recognized him as Johnny Waffles, a former Sanctuary citizen who would hang around the bounty board. She gave him a grimace. 

“Take me to Lilith.” 

“O-of course, Angel,” he said. 

Angel stepped forward confidently, standing in front of Lilith with her chest raised. 

“Hello, Lilith.” she said, “We need to talk.” 

“Yeah, we do, Tiger. How did you get out?”

“That’s not important.” Angel said, “You need to know what Jack is planning.” 

Lilith raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, what do you know?” 

“Jack is angry; Maya isn’t responding to the eridium treatments, and with me gone, he’s lost his only siren that can power up the vault key, so we’ve bought ourselves some time. As far as those who are still in Sanctuary, they’re all dead, or might as well be. He’s killing them off as fast as he can. Roland, Moxxi, and Hammerlock are all dead, as well as all of the active crimson raider members, and he’s moving on to civilians. Nisha has taken the children to Lynchwood, so at least there’s that.” Angel said, “He’s also contacted Dahl to send Axton to an execution.

“Good, let that traitor hang.” Lilith said, and Angel shook her head. 

“You don’t understand; Jack’s controlling Axton. Took away his free will and placed an AI in there, instead. If Jack was telling the truth to Dahl, the AI can be deactivated, and Axton will come back to us.”

“If you’re proposing to save him, it’s not going to happen. We can’t afford men on a gamble for Axton’s life that may or may not be worth it.” 

“You’re right.” Angel said slowly, “So what will be our next move? We can’t just stay here and wait for Jack to find a better weapon to kill us with.” 

“We- uh, we were working on that part.” Lilith said. Angel put her hands on her hips. 

“So you’re saying you’re open to suggestions.” A wry smile came to her lips, “You know, while I was in captivity I took a lot of that time planning how to escape. I think I can do it again. There’s a few people we may need to contact, but I think we still may have a chance to win this war.” 

“I hope you’re ready to work a few miracles, kid, ‘cause we have no resources. No money, no allies, nothing.” 

“Give me an echo com and a few hours, and I might have some solutions to your problems.” Angel said. 

“Angel!” there was a cry from behind her. Angel turned around and saw Gaige staring at her with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Angel smiled and waved at her, before getting suddenly tackled by Gaige, the mechromancer’s arms wrapping tightly around her. Angel let out a squeak as the air was squeezed out of her. 

“I thought I would never see you again!” Gaige cried, “But you’re here, and alive!!!” 

Angel laughed and Gaige settled her back onto the ground. 

“You’re never leaving my sights again, you hear?” Gaige said. Lilith coughed, pulling them out of the moment. Angel blushed.

“Right, yes, I happen to know of a few allies you may not have thought of before. Give me an echo and an hour, and half your problems will go away.” 

****************************************************************************************************

Gaige slipped her arms around Angel’s shoulders. 

“You are the most brilliant woman I have ever met.” She grinned, “Jack won’t know what hit him.” 

“What? All I’m doing is broadcasting the images of the executions all across the interplanetary echo net. It’s not like anyone will take offense to that, right?” Angel said innocently. 

“Haha, yeah, Hyperion’s not going to get into hot water or ANYTHING. You’ve won this war for us, Angel.” Gaige said. 

“Hardly… Hyperion’s got lawyers and PR men ready to cover stuff like this, but it should send an important message out to a few people.”

“Oh?” Gaige asked. Angel smiled and nodded. 

“There may be a few heroes left in the universe. They’ll pick up the call.” 

************************************************************************************************

Lilith, Brick, Angel, and Mordecai waited in their makeshift headquarters, making tentative plans as they waited for the promised call. The echo rang, and Lilith wrinkled her nose. 

“Aurelia Hammerlock?” she said. Angel nodded, and Lilith reluctantly answered it. 

“Hello, darling.” Aurelia said, “How is the bandit life serving you?” 

“It’s been better,” Lilith answered. 

“Good, good, fine, fine.” Aurelia said, “Now, it comes to my attention that your little rebelion has hit a snag, leading to Jack killing many people, isn’t that correct?” 

“Yes…” Lilith said. 

“Do you still intend to kill Jack?” Aurelia asked, the cantor of her voice dropping. Lilith perked up. 

“Yup.” Lilith said. 

“Good, then consider your little rebellion funded. I want that brother killing bastard dead.” 

Lilith’s mouth dropped open. She looked at the expressions of her teammate. Mordecai seemed equally shocked, and Brick was grinning. Angel just gave Lilith a sly smile. 

“I thought- I thought you and Alistair didn’t get along.” Lilith said. 

Aurelia narrowed her eyes, “Hammerlocks don’t die, darling, even if they are irritating twats. He was still my brother, and deserved a better death than being ripped apart by some mongrel.” 

“I thought you liked to work with Jack…”

“That is in the past darling, like many other things. After the events on Helios, I realized a lot of things about myself, and the future that I wanted. None of it involved having my name tied to that tyrant.” 

A low voice was heard over the echo com, but Lilith couldn’t make it out. 

“No,no, Timothy, my love, tea can wait until later” 

Lilith raised an eyebrow.

“Timothy, isn’t the name of Jack’s-”

Aurelia quickly cut her off. 

“Don’t worry yourself about coincidences, darling, they may get you in trouble.” There was a dangerous tone in her voice. Lilith decided not to press the issue further. 

“Anyways, I’m prepared to wire a significant sum to your accounts. Would a few billion dollars do? I’m not sure how much rebellions cost, but I hope that will be enough petty cash to suit your needs.” 

“Yes, absolutely!” Lilith said, “I’ll send you information-”

“No need, darling, I know exactly where to send the money to. Ta ta, darlings, and don’t disappoint me. I would hate to have to go down there myself and get my gloves dirty.” 

And with that, Aurelia signed off. Lilith beamed at Angel. 

“Kid, you’re spectacular,” Lilith said. Angel smiled back, but before she could say anything else, Lilith’s echo rang again. Lilith answered it, a coy look on her face. 

“Hey, Athena…”

************************************************************************************************************

Twelve calls. Twelve people had called down to the Crimson Raiders to offer some form of aid. Along with Athena and Aurelia, they had a few Hyperion competitors offering discounts on ammunition and weapons, and, most notably, a Dahl representative contacting them regarding Axton. 

“My name is Sarah. It has come to my attention that Jack has attacked Sanctuary and has been executing civilians.” the woman said, “I have been given authority from my superiors to assist you in your efforts, however, Dahl’s name is not to be connected to this in any way, shape, or form. For all purposes, I am AWOL.”

“We’ll take you,” Brick said. (He had answered the echo call, as Lilith and Mordecai were already caught up with other phone calls). 

“Good, I have tactics and training that could prove useful to a small rebellion like this. I’m already on a transport ship to Pandora as we speak. I will see you in seven hours.” she said. Brick hung up the phone, and turned to Angel. 

“Sarah? Why does that name sound familiar?” he said. 

“That was Axton’s ex-wife.” Angel said quietly. 

“What? No shit! Ha, this is going to be good!” Brick exclaimed. 

“Good news, Maliwan is sneaking a shipment of weapons through the Hyperion Barricade, for us.” Lilith said, hanging up the phone, “We’ll corrode those loaderbots till there’s nothing left!” 

Her mood had visibly lifted, and it made Angel smile. They could do this; they could win this fight against Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you ask, yes that was everyone's favorite doppleganger with Aurelia. I may have a VERY soft spot for Aurelothy in my heart.


End file.
